From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

=====

In 0015, the world is corrupted by Dark Bring, dark stones that bestow powerful magic with different abilities to their owners. The Dark Brings are used by the Raregroove Kingdom, and the Symphonia Kingdom fight against them with their five powerful Rave stones. Shiba Roses, the Rave Master, attempts to destroy Sinclaire, the "mother" of all of the Dark Brings, with the Ten Commandments sword. However, the aftermath causes a massive explosion known as Overdrive, destroying one-tenth of the known world. Shiba, protected from the disaster by his special guardian "dog" Plue, holds onto the Rave required to power his sword. Plue and the four remaining Raves, however, get scattered around the world. Fifty years later, sixteen-year-old Haru Glory lives on the peaceful Garage Island with his older sister, Cattleya. Shortly after Haru accidentally fishes Plue up, Shiba arrives wishing to reclaim Plue, but a group of terrorists from the Demon Card organization appear to kill Shiba. Shiba tells Haru that he is the second Rave Master, entrusting the Ten Commandments, Plue, and his Rave to him. Seeking power to defeat Demon Card, Haru and Plue set off on a journey to find the missing Rave stones. Upon arriving at the mainland, Haru befriends a girl named Elie, who has no recollection of her past. During their journey, Haru encounters enemies from Demon Card who eventually become his allies, including Shuda and Sieg Hart. Haru later meets a diverse group of allies, including Hamrio Musica, grandson of a blacksmith; Let Dahaka and Julia, two who appear human but are in fact of the Dragon Race; Griffon Kato, a strange blue creature and Plue's friend; Ruby, a penguin and a casino owner; Belnika, a mage; and Niebel, Sieg's close friend. He also encounters Gale "King" Raregroove, the king of the Raregroove Kingdom and leader of Demon Card. On the Tower of Din, Haru reunites with his absent father Gale Glory to defeat King and end Demon Card. Although they win, Gale sacrifices himself to save his son from Din's destruction. Some time later, King's son, Lucia, appears and revives Demon Card. He wishes to capture Elie to use the magical energy known as Etherion hidden within her body. While facing Lucia and his forces, Haru's group also learn of the mythical creature known as Endless, which threatens mankind by provoking another Overdrive and can only be destroyed with Etherion. Using all Sinclaires, Lucia absorbs Endless. Lucia's objective is to destroy the world, which is actually a parallel dimension created by his descendant with Etherion after the original was ruined by a plague and his family was cursed as a result. After Haru finds all of the Raves, Elie uses Etherion to combine them. In order to avoid another Overdrive, Haru and his friends oppose Lucia and his strongest enemies in the Star Memory. Although Haru defeats Lucia, he is absorbed by Endless and convinces Elie to destroy it even if it means taking his life. One year later, Elie has lost her memories of Haru, and she and the others visit his grave. Haru appears alive thanks to the Star Memory's magic and reunites with Elie, who then remembers him. The warriors go their separate ways, and Haru and Elie return to Garage Island to live together. 

=====

Pokémon Adventures is divided into several distinct parts which are known as chapters, and those, in turn, are divided further into volumes and many smaller chapters. There are fifteen major divisions at present, with eleven of them completely published, and one of them partially published. 56 volumes of the manga have been released as of August 2020. 

=====

The film deals with the relationships among four men in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during the Second World War -- Major Jack Celliers (Bowie), a rebellious South African British officer with a guilty secret from his youth; Captain Yonoi (Sakamoto), the young camp commandant; Lieutenant Colonel John Lawrence (Conti), another British officer who has lived in Japan and speaks Japanese fluently; and Sergeant Hara (Kitano), who is brutal, yet humane in some ways and with whom Lawrence develops an unlikely friendship. Just as Celliers is troubled by guilt, Yonoi is haunted with shame. He was unable to be in Tokyo with his Army comrades, the "Shining Young Officers" of Japan's February 26 Incident, an attempted 1936 military coup. When it failed, the young officers were executed. Yonoi regrets not being able to share their patriotic sacrifice. Jack Celliers had betrayed his younger brother while they were at boarding school in South Africa. Although Celliers confesses this only to Lawrence, Captain Yonoi senses in Celliers a kindred spirit. He wants to replace British RAAF Group Captain Hicksley (the ranking Allied officer) with Celliers as spokesman for the prisoners. In the camp, Yonoi seems to develop a homoerotic fixation with Celliers, often asking Hara about him, silently visiting him in the night while Celliers is asleep. Celliers, known by the nickname of "Strafer" Jack (a "strafer" is a "soldier's soldier"), instigates a number of rebellious actions, including supplying the men with food after their rations are withheld two days for their actions during the seppuku of a Korean guard, whom Yonoi deemed "spiritually lazy". Yonoi's batman (personal servant) surmises the hold Celliers has on Yonoi and tries to kill Celliers but fails. Celliers escapes from his cell and rescues Lawrence, only to be unexpectedly confronted by Yonoi. Yonoi challenges Celliers to combat, saying, "If you defeat me, you will be free," but Celliers refuses, thrusting his prior assailant's bayonet into the sand. Yonoi's batman then commits seppuku in atonement after urging Yonoi to kill Celliers before Celliers destroys him. When a radio is discovered after Celliers circumvented the rations suspension, Yonoi forces Celliers and Lawrence to accept the blame and imprisons them pending execution. The two men reminisce about their pasts. However, on Christmas Eve, a drunken Sergeant Hara orders Celliers and Lawrence to be brought to him. Hara then tells them he is "Father Christmas" and orders their release as another prisoner confessed responsibility for the radio. As the two men leave, Hara calls out in English, "Merry Christmas, Lawrence!" Although Yonoi is angry that Sergeant Hara released Celliers and Lawrence, he only mildly reprimands him for exceeding his authority. He is then assigned to oversee (with some of the prisoners) the construction of an airstrip. Hicksley worries that Yonoi wants to replace him as spokesman for the POW's and confronts him, demanding an explanation. Furious at Hicksley's impudence (while at the same time denying Yonoi the information he seeks), Yonoi orders the whole camp to form up outside the barracks, including the sick and disabled. When Hicksley refuses to assemble the sick, an enraged Yonoi prepares to kill him. At this point Celliers breaks rank and walks up to Yonoi, between him and Hicksley, and kisses him on each cheek. Yonoi reaches for his katana, only to collapse under the conflicting feelings of wanting vindication for the offence suffered in front of his men; and his feelings for Celliers. Celliers is then attacked and beaten by the Japanese soldiers. Captain Yonoi is immediately replaced as commandant and his successor declares, "I am not as sentimental as Captain Yonoi!" He has Celliers buried in the sand up to his neck and left to die. Before leaving, Captain Yonoi goes to Celliers at night when no one is around and cuts a lock from his hair, then bows and leaves. Celliers dies shortly afterwards. In 1946, four years later, Lawrence visits Sergeant Hara, who is now a prisoner of the Allies. Hara has learned to speak English and reveals he is to be executed the following day for war crimes. He states he is not afraid to die, but doesn't understand how his actions were any different from those of any other soldier. Lawrence implicitly agrees, saying that Hara is a "victim of men who think they are right". After referencing his own time as a POW, Lawrence says, "We are all wrong." He then tells Hara that Yonoi gave him a lock of Celliers' hair and asked him to take it to his village in Japan and place it in a shrine. Hara then reminisces about Celliers and Yonoi. It is revealed that Yonoi too was executed after the war. Hara asks Lawrence if he remembers the Christmas Eve he had him released, and both are amused. The two then bid one another goodbye; Lawrence, his voice breaking, says, "There are times when victory is very hard to take." As he is leaving, Hara calls out: "Lawrence!!! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence!" 

=====

The series begins with a young monkey- tailed boy named Goku befriending a teenage girl named Bulma. Together, they go on an adventure to find the seven mystical , which have the ability to summon the powerful dragon Shenron, who can grant whoever summoned him their greatest desire. The journey leads to a confrontation with the shape-shifting pig Oolong, as well as a desert bandit named Yamcha and his companion Pu'ar, who all later become allies; Chi-Chi, whom Goku unknowingly agrees to marry; and Emperor Pilaf, a blue imp who seeks the Dragon Balls to fulfill his desire of becoming ruler of the world. After Oolong stops Pilaf from using the Dragon Balls by wishing for a pair of panties, Goku undergoes rigorous training regimes under the martial artist Master Roshi in order to fight in the that attracts the most powerful fighters in the world. A monk named Krillin becomes his training partner and rival, but they soon become best friends. After the tournament, Goku sets out on his own to recover the Dragon Ball his deceased grandfather left him and encounters a terrorist organization known as the Red Ribbon Army, whose diminutive leader, Commander Red, wants to collect the Dragon Balls so that he can use them to become taller. He almost single- handedly defeats the army, including their hired assassin Mercenary Tao, whom he originally loses to, but after training under the hermit Korin, easily beats. Goku reunites with his friends to defeat Fortuneteller Baba's fighters and have her locate the last Dragon Ball in order to revive a friend killed by Tao. They all reunite at the World Martial Arts Tournament three years later and meet Master Roshi's rival and Tao's brother, Master Shen, and his students Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu, who vow to exact revenge for Tao's apparent death at the hands of Goku. Krillin is murdered after the tournament and Goku tracks down and is defeated by his killer, King Piccolo. The overweight samurai Yajirobe takes Goku to Korin, where he receives healing and a power boost. Meanwhile, Piccolo kills both Master Roshi and Chiaotzu, and uses the Dragon Balls to give himself eternal youth before destroying Shenron, which results in the Dragon Balls' destruction. As King Piccolo prepares to destroy West City as a show of force, Tien Shinhan arrives to confront him, but is defeated and nearly killed. Goku arrives in time to save Tien and then kills King Piccolo by blasting a hole through his chest. However, just before he dies, Piccolo spawns his final son, Piccolo Junior. Korin informs Goku that Kami, the original creator of the Dragon Balls, might be able to restore Shenron so that Goku can wish his fallen friends back to life, which he does. He also stays and trains under Kami for the next three years, once again reuniting with his friends at the Tenkaichi Budōkai, as well as a now-teenaged Chi-Chi and the revived Mercenary Tao. Piccolo Junior also enters the tournament to avenge his father's death, leading to the final battle between him and Goku. After Goku narrowly wins and defeats Piccolo Junior, he leaves with Chi-Chi and they get married, leading to the events of Dragon Ball Z. 

=====



=====

Over the course of 66 issues, this incarnation of the Suicide Squad undertook numerous high-risk missions for the U.S. government. 

=====



=====

The first issue details the former Injustice League's terminally botched attempt to extract a kidnapped scientist from an Icelandic facility. With all but one team member (Major Disaster) presumed dead by issue's end, Sgt. Rock forms a new Suicide Squad for the missions ahead. Major Disaster, Deadshot, and Killer Frost are mainstays of the field team. For his part, Rock is every bit as ruthless as Amanda Waller was (though far more affable), remorselessly sending his agents to die for the good of their country. The Squad's missions involve eliminating an out-of-control colony of bio-engineered army ants,Suicide Squad (vol. 2) #3 and investigating the mysterious island of Kooey Kooey Kooey to discourage its telepathic inhabitants from declaring war on Earth.Suicide Squad (vol. 2) #7Suicide Squad (vol. 2) #8 Havana is revealed to be Amanda Waller's daughter,Suicide Squad (vol. 2) #9 and the final story arc revolves around an all-out attack on the Squad by the members of Onslaught, led by the son of longtime Squad enemy Rustam. Onslaught kills Modem and captures Rock, Havana, and Waller.Suicide Squad (vol. 2) #11 Upon learning that the Squad has been compromised, Waller's office drafts the Justice Society of America to counterattack Onslaught alongside the Squad, but they arrive too late to save Havana from Rustam's wrath. Deadshot discovers a discarded Sgt. Rock mask inside an empty holding cell, which prompts Bulldozer (who is monitoring the situation remotely via Deadshot's video camera) to stand from his wheelchair and announce "Oh, boy!" before leaving. Back in her office, Amanda Waller reviews Bulldozer's file, and states that he and Sgt. Rock died in 1945. 

=====



=====

After he is believed dead, Rick Flag Jr. resurfaces on the dinosaur-infested island of Skartaris alongside his enemy Rustam.Suicide Squad (vol. 3) #1 The pair works together to survive.Suicide Squad (vol. 3) #2 Unfortunately, Flag is forced to kill Rustam once they discover a way home. Afterward, he becomes a prisoner of war in Qurac for four years. Flag rejoins the Suicide Squad after he is rescued by Bronze Tiger. After reviewing several new recruits,Suicide Squad (vol. 3) #3Suicide Squad (vol. 3) #4 Amanda Waller briefs the Squad on the latest target: a Dubai-based global conglomerate called Haake-Bruton, whose new viral weapon is to be destroyed, and its board of directors eliminated.Suicide Squad (vol. 3) #5 The Squad airdrops onto Haake-Bruton's island stronghold, where Flag encounters Rustam's revenge-seeking father. Eiling compromises the mission, conspiring with Thinker to betray the Squad to Haake-Bruton's board in exchange for asylum.Suicide Squad (vol. 3) #6 The Squad suffers heavy casualties in the sudden internal conflict.Suicide Squad (vol. 3) #7 Despite numerous setbacks, Deadshot carries out the assassination, while Waller confronts the General personally. Eiling demonstrates control over Flag via psychological conditioning; Flag subdues him after revealing the cooperation as a ruse, and the Squad returns to Belle Reve. Flag is unfazed by Waller's revelation that his own identity and memories are implanted, asserting to Nightshade that he is still Rick Flag Jr.Suicide Squad (vol. 3) #8 

=====



=====

After a botched government mission forces her to execute an injured teammate, Amanda Waller sets out to assemble an expendable field team, prompting the formation of a new Suicide Squad.Suicide Squad vol. 4 #0 Waller forces dozens of Belle Reve's death row inmates into a series of rigorous tests and torture scenarios to evaluate their loyalty and value as potential Squad members. The finalists—notably including Deadshot, King Shark, and Harley Quinn—are outfitted with micro-bomb implants, and inducted into the Squad.Suicide Squad vol. 4 #1 The Suicide Squad's missions typically involve the elimination or retrieval of high-value targets. At one point, the team must track down an AWOL Harley Quinn;Suicide Squad vol. 4 #6–7 in another mission, the Squad goes after Resurrection Man.Suicide Squad (vol. 4) #9 The Basilisk terrorist group serves as a recurring villainSuicide Squad (vol. 4) #8, 10–13Suicide Squad vol. 4 #17–19 (echoing the Onslaught organization from John Ostrander's original Suicide Squad series), and several issues delve into the twisted relationship between Harley Quinn and the Joker.Suicide Squad vol. 4 #14–15 Eventually, Waller recruits serial killer James Gordon Jr. to act as Belle Reve's in-house psychiatric adviser—but unbeknownst to her, Gordon quickly develops a twisted infatuation with her.Suicide Squad vol. 4 #20 One ongoing and unresolved plot point involves the Samsara serum—a medical treatment that Belle Reve's doctors use to resurrect dead Squad members (including Deadshot and VoltaicSuicide Squad (vol. 4) #16). It is eventually discovered that the serum will permanently kill anyone to whom it is administered; Waller is implied to be one such subject.Suicide Squad (vol. 4) #22 

=====

Honorably discharged Army Ranger sergeant Cameron Poe returns home to his pregnant wife Tricia after experiencing several combat deployments during Operation Desert Storm. However, he is sentenced to ten years in prison for inadvertently killing a drunken man – one of three who tried to attack him and Tricia. While in prison, Poe communicates with Tricia and his newborn daughter Casey through letters; eight years later, he is paroled and boards a flight to Alabama on board the Jailbird, a Fairchild C-123 Provider converted into a flying prison transport. Poe is accompanied by his diabetic cellmate and friend Mike "Baby-O" O'Dell, who is being transferred. The flight is overseen by U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin, who is approached by DEA agents Duncan Malloy and Willie Sims, the latter planning to go undercover to get information from drug lord Francisco Cindino, who is to be picked up en route. A number of inmates are being transferred to a new supermax prison, including mass murderer William "Billy Bedlam" Bedford, serial rapist John "Johnny 23" Baca, Black Guerrilla Family member Nathan "Diamond Dog" Jones, and criminal mastermind "Cyrus the Virus" Grissom. After taking off, affable inmate Joe "Pinball" Parker incites a riot as a distraction, releasing Grissom and Diamond Dog who lead the takeover of the plane. The hijacking inmates plot to land at Carson Airport as scheduled, pick up and transfer other prisoners, and then fly to a non-extradition country. Sims tries to take control of the plane, but Grissom kills him. Poe and Grissom also foil Johnny 23's rape attempts on the plane's only female guard, Sally Bishop, due to Grissom's vocal hatred of rapists. The plane arrives at Carson City as scheduled and the inmate exchange commences, with the ground crew unaware that the hijackers are disguised as guards. As the transfer begins, most of the plane's guards and the pilot are forced to pose as inmates and conveyed off the plane. Amongst the new passengers are Cindino, new pilot Earl "Swamp Thing" Williams, and serial killer Garland Greene, who is feared by many inmates. The authorities discover the hijacking upon finding evidence in Grissom's old cell and a tape recorder placed with the disguised guards by Poe, but are unable to stop the plane from taking off. Meanwhile, Pinball, sent by the inmates to dispose of the plane's transponder to keep it from being detected, tries but fails to make it back to the hijacked plane. The inmates plan to land at Lerner Airport, an abandoned airstrip in the desert, and transfer onto another plane owned by Cindino and his cartel. Poe finds Pinball's corpse trapped in the landing gear, writing a message to the U.S. Marshals on the body before throwing it out. Larkin learns of the news and heads out to Lerner after contacting the National Guard. Bedford, raiding the cargo, discovers Poe's identity when he reads his parole letter and finds a toy bunny Poe intends to give to his daughter, forcing Poe to kill him. The Jailbird is grounded at Lerner, with no sign of the transfer aircraft. Poe warns the other inmates of Cindino's past acts of deceit and betrayal, and thus Grissom orders the others to fuel up the plane and get it ready for takeoff. Poe leaves to find Baby-O a syringe to give him insulin, meeting Larkin and informing him of the situation. The duo discover Cindino planning to escape on a hidden private jet, with Larkin sabotaging it as it takes off. Grissom executes Cindino by igniting the crashed plane's fuel. Meanwhile, Johnny 23, assigned as the sentry in the control tower, spots a National Guard convoy approaching and gives the alarm. The inmates quickly find a cache of fully loaded shotguns and M-16 rifles in the plane's cargo hold (originally assigned to guards) and prepare an ambush. As the National Guardsmen arrive, the inmates launch an assault; some are killed, but Larkin defends the surviving troops using a bulldozer as a makeshift shield. Several inmates are killed, and the rest flee back onto the Jailbird and take flight. Poe's identity is revealed when Bedford's body is found. Grissom is about to execute him and Baby-O when Larkin and Malloy arrive in attack helicopters, launching machine gun fire at it and damaging the Jailbirds fuel tank. Though Larkin orders the plane to land at McCarran International Airport, Swamp Thing is forced to land it on the Las Vegas Strip, causing mass destruction and killing Johnny 23. Cyrus, Diamond Dog, and Swamp Thing escape on a fire truck, pursued by Poe and Larkin on police motorcycles. The chase leads to the deaths of all three escapees, with Cyrus killed by a pile driver that crushes his head. As the rest of the other convicts are quickly re-apprehended, Poe and Larkin form a friendship, just as Tricia and Casey arrive. Poe meets his daughter for the first time and gives her the toy rabbit he bought for her. The only criminal unaccounted for is Garland Greene, who gambles at an undisclosed casino and is now apparently reformed. 

=====

thumb In the midst of the Great Depression, Alan Squier (Howard), a failed British writer, now a disillusioned, penniless drifter, wanders into a somewhat frowzy roadside diner in the remote town of Black Mesa, Arizona, at the edge of the Petrified Forest. The diner is run by Jason Maple (Porter Hall), his daughter Gabrielle (Davis), and Gramp, Jason's father (Charley Grapewin), who regales anyone who will listen with stories of his adventures in the Old West with such characters as Billy the Kid. Gabrielle's mother, a French war bride who fell in love with Jason when he was a young, handsome American serviceman, left her "dull defeated man" after World War I and moved back to France when Gabrielle was a baby. She now sends poetry to Gabrielle, who dreams of moving to Bourges, where her parents first met, to become an artist. Alan tells his story—how he wrote one novel, then lived in France for eight years with his publisher's wife, trying to write another—and Gabrielle is instantly smitten with him. thumb Gabrielle shows Alan her paintings—the first time she has shown them to anyone—and reads him a favorite François Villon poem. Boze Hertzlinger (Dick Foran), a beefy diner employee who has wooed Gabrielle in vain, grows jealous of Alan, who decides to leave forthwith. He mooches a ride from wealthy tourists Mr. and Mrs. Chisholm (Paul Harvey and Genevieve Tobin); but after only a few minutes on the road they encounter Duke Mantee (Bogart), a notorious gangster fleeing a massive police pursuit, whose car has broken down. Duke and his gang seize the Chisholms' car and drive to the diner, where Duke has arranged to rendezvous with his girlfriend, Doris, on their way to Mexico. Alan, the Chisholms, and their chauffeur (John Alexander) soon make their way back to the diner as well. Alan, indifferent to the hostage situation, engages Duke in lively conversation and toasts him as "the last great apostle of rugged individualism." Boze snatches a rifle and gets the drop on Duke, but during a momentary distraction Duke draws his pistol and shoots Boze in the hand, regaining control. Duke learns that Doris has been captured, and has revealed their rendezvous location to the police. As police and federal agents converge on the diner, Duke prepares to flee, announcing that he will take Mr. and Mrs. Chisholm with him. Inspired by Boze's act of courage, Alan has an inspiration: while Gabrielle is in the back room bandaging Boze's hand, he produces a life insurance policy from his bag and amends it, making Gabrielle the beneficiary. Then he asks Duke to kill him ("It couldn't make any difference to you, Duke ... they can hang you only once ..."), so that Gabrielle can use the insurance money to realize her dream of moving to France. Duke obliges, then leaves with his human shields. Alan dies in Gabrielle's arms, secure in the knowledge that she, unlike the rest, will escape her dead-end existence to pursue her dreams. 

=====

Reporter Michael Ward is the key witness in a murder trial. His evidence – that he saw the accused, Joe Briggs, standing over the body of a man in a diner – is instrumental in having Briggs found guilty. Afterwards, Ward's fiancée Jane begins worrying that Ward may not have been correct in what he saw; eventually Ward becomes haunted by this question. One evening, outside his room in the house where he lives, Ward sees an odd-looking stranger. He chases this man down the stairs and out the front door where Ward loses track of him. Ward feels that his neighbor, a man he hates, may have been killed by the stranger. Ward has a terrifying dream in which the neighbor is indeed murdered and he comes under suspicion. It turns out the neighbor was killed the same way as the man in the diner. Ward finds the body, notifies police and points out the similarities in the two murders. He is arrested and, in order to clear him, Jane sets out to find the strange man. 

=====

An aged gangster, Big Mac (Donald MacBride), is planning a robbery at a fashionable California resort hotel in the fictional resort town of Tropico Springs, California. He wants the experienced Roy Earle (Humphrey Bogart), whose release from an eastern prison by a governor's pardon he has arranged, to lead the heist and to take charge of the operation.High Sierra at Film Reference.com Roy drives across the country to a camp in the mountains to meet up with the three men who will assist him in the heist: Louis Mendoza (Cornel Wilde), who works as a clerk in the hotel, plus Red (Arthur Kennedy) and Babe (Alan Curtis), who are already living at the camp. Babe has brought along a dance-hall girl, Marie (Ida Lupino). Roy wants to send Marie back to Los Angeles but, after some argument, she convinces Roy to let her stay. Roy also is adopted by a small dog called Pard. Marie falls in love with Roy as he plans and executes the robbery, but he does not reciprocate initially. On the drive up to the mountains, Roy meets the family of Velma (Joan Leslie), a young woman with a clubbed foot who walks with a limp. Roy pays for corrective surgery to allow Velma to walk normally, despite her grandfather's warning that Velma has a boyfriend back home. While she is recovering, Roy asks Velma to marry him but she refuses, explaining that she is engaged to a man from back home. When Velma's fiancé arrives, Roy turns to Marie, and they become lovers. The heist goes wrong when they are interrupted by a security guard. Roy makes his getaway with Marie, but Mendoza, Red, and Babe are involved in a car crash, killing Red and Babe. Mendoza is captured and talks, putting the police on Roy's trail. Roy goes to Big Mac with the jewels from the robbery, but finds him dead of a heart attack. While Roy and Marie leave town, a dragnet is put out for him, identifying him to the public as "Mad Dog Roy Earle". The two fugitives separate in order to allow Marie time to escape. Roy is pursued until he climbs one of the Sierra mountains, where he fires shots at the police and then holes up overnight. Shortly after sunrise, Roy hears Pard barking, runs out calling Marie's name and is shot dead from behind by a sharpshooter. 

=====

John Winger (Bill Murray) is a cab driver in New York City who, in the span of a few hours, loses his job, his apartment, his car, and his girlfriend, Anita. Realizing that he is a 30 year old loser with no prospects, he decides to join the Army. He talks his best friend Russell Ziskey (Harold Ramis), a teacher of English as a second language, into joining him, and they go to a recruiting office and are soon sent off to basic training. Upon arriving at Fort Arnold, they meet their fellow recruits, and their drill sergeant, Sergeant Hulka (Warren Oates). Moments after arriving, John angers Sergeant Hulka and is ordered out to do push-ups. He stands out as a slacker throughout basic training. John and Russell make friends with a platoon who are a bunch of misfits. Their commanding officer is the arrogant and incompetent Captain Stillman (John Larroquette). As basic training progresses, Russell and John become romantically linked to female MPs Louise Cooper and Stella Hansen. Not long before graduation, Hulka is injured when Stillman, trying to impress a visiting colonel, orders a mortar crew to fire without setting target coordinates. The men go to a mud wrestling bar, where John convinces Dewey "Ox" Oxberger (John Candy) to wrestle a group of women. When the club is raided by MPs and police, Stella and Louise cover for John and Russell. The rest of the platoon are returned to base, where a furious Stillman threatens to make them all repeat basic training. After partying with Stella and Louise, the buddies return to the barracks, and John motivates the platoon with a passionate speech and begins to get them in shape for graduation. After a long night of practice, they oversleep and almost miss the ceremony. They rush to the parade grounds in their fatigues. There they give an eccentric, yet highly coordinated, drill display led by John. General Barnicke is impressed when he finds out that they had to complete training without a drill sergeant, and decides they are just the kind of "go-getters" he wants working on his EM-50 project in Italy. Once in Italy, the platoon is reunited with a recovered Hulka and assigned to guard the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle, an armored personnel carrier disguised as a recreational vehicle. Fed up with their boring assignment, John and Russell steal the EM-50 to visit their girlfriends, stationed in West Germany. When Stillman finds the EM-50 missing, he launches an unauthorized mission to get the vehicle back before his superiors find out it is gone. Hulka urges Stillman not to go, but is overruled. Stillman inadvertently leads the platoon across the border into Czechoslovakia. Hulka, recognizing where they are, jumps out of the truck just before it is captured by the Soviet Army. He makes a mayday radio call that is heard by John and Russell, who realize that the platoon came looking for them and are now in danger. John, Russell, Stella, and Louise take the EM-50 and infiltrate a Soviet base where the platoon is being held. With some assistance from Hulka, they save the entire platoon. Upon returning to the US, John, Russell, Louise, Stella, and Hulka are treated as heroes, each being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Hulka retires and opens the HulkaBurger franchise. Stella appears on the cover of Penthouse, Ox makes the cover of Tiger Beat, Russell recreates his firefight with the Russians for Guts magazine, and John is featured on the cover of Newsworld. The disgraced Captain Stillman is reassigned to a weather station near Nome, Alaska. 

=====

Railway agent Mike Flannery wants to charge the livestock rate for a shipment of two guinea pigs and refuses to accept the lower pet rate, saying "pigs is pigs". Flannery believes that the "guinea" is an indication of the pigs' national origin. He argues that they should bear the higher freight charge of 30¢ for livestock, rather than the lower 25¢ for domestic pets. In support of this, he submits that if they were "dago pigs" or "Irish pigs", there would be no question of the animals' status. Because the customer refuses to accept delivery, Flannery is forced to feed and house what he now calls the "dago pigs" in his office, until he receives permission from his superiors to return the pigs to the company warehouse. By this time, the guinea pigs have reproduced exponentially in Flannery's station house. After returning all the descendants, Flannery resolves to charge the lower rate for any future livestock. 

=====

The story deals with the development of a series of computers, Multivac, and its relationships with humanity through the courses of seven historic settings, beginning on the day in 2061 that Earth becomes a planetary civilization. In each of the first six scenes, a different character presents the computer with the same question, how the threat to human existence posed by the heat death of the universe can be averted: "How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?" That is equivalent to asking, "Can the workings of the second law of thermodynamics (used in the story as the increase of the entropy of the universe) be reversed?" Multivac's only response after much "thinking" is "INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER." The story jumps forward in time into later eras of human and scientific development. In each era, someone decides to ask the ultimate "last question" regarding the reversal and decrease of entropy. Each time that Multivac's descendant is asked the question, it finds itself unable to solve the problem, and all it can answer is (linguistically increasingly- sophisticated) "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER." In the last scene, the god-like descendant of humanity, the unified mental process of over a trillion, trillion, trillion humans who have spread throughout the universe, watches the stars flicker out, one by one, as matter and energy end, and with them, space and time. Humanity asks AC, Multivac's ultimate descendant that exists in hyperspace beyond the bounds of gravity or time, the entropy question one last time, before the last of humanity merges with AC and disappears. AC is still unable to answer but continues to ponder the question even after space and time cease to exist. AC ultimately realizes that it has not yet combined all of its available data in every possible combination and so begins the arduous process of rearranging and combining every last bit of information that it has gained throughout the eons and through its fusion with humanity. Eventually AC discovers the answer - that the reversal of entropy is, in fact, possible - but has nobody to report it to, since the universe is already dead. It therefore decides to answer by demonstration, since that will also create someone to give the answer to. The story ends with AC's pronouncement: 

=====

Kevin Caffrey, a thief and connoisseur is at a local auction looking for things worth stealing. He meets Amber Belhaven who is auctioning off her father's painting to pay a hotel bill. When Kevin asks Amber about her hotel room which leads to Amber asking if he was trying to sleep with her, Kevin blinks rapidly and lies while also telling her that when he blinks he lies. When Kevin asks Amber if he could see her sometime Amber pretends to have the same thing Kevin has and says yes. While knowing what hotel she was staying in, he shows up to her room with the painting she auctioned off, having stolen it. Kevin tells Amber about his stealing business which shocks Amber at first but she accepts it in order to be with Kevin, and she later gives Kevin her father's lucky ring. Elsewhere, Max Fairbanks, a snarky businessman whose company, TUI, is going into bankruptcy, is going over with his lawyer Walter Greenbaum on how to save his company. Walter is exhausted as Max does not take the proceeding seriously and still spends freely even asking to declare bankruptcy immediately without trying to budget so his assets are protected. He tells his wife Lutetia Fairbanks that his company is in a technical procedure to disguise what his company is really going into. Kevin goes to a local bar which his Uncle Jack owns to see Amber. Whilst inside he also runs into his friend Berger, who is also a thief and happens to know what places to hit. While having Kevin going outside to tell him about Max Fairbanks, he shows him an article about Max's current situation with his company, as well as what he couldn't access due to the critical condition of the chapter 11 bankruptcy code which includes going into his beachfront mansion. Kevin and Berger go to the house to rob it, but Max captures Kevin. Before the police take Kevin away, Max spots Amber's ring and tells the police that the ring was also stolen. Kevin is forced to hand over the ring. After escaping from the police, Kevin returns to the beach house to get his ring back from Max, but fails to find him. Angry at Max, Kevin finishes off what he started by robbing Max of the valuables inside the house and one of Max's three cars outside. Kevin tells Amber that the ring was stolen from him. The next day an exasperated Walter informs Max he was banned from his summer house, and his being there breached the terms of his bankruptcy. Max flippantly says he'll be fine as the ring is his lucky charm. Meanwhile, Kevin and Berger hire Shelly Nix, a computer hacker, to track Max's whereabouts by hacking into his e-mail. During an airplane flight, Max talks to his associate Gloria, a psychic, about the ring. Gloria consults her cards, and draws a king with five daggers on his head. Shocked at the result, Gloria doesn't tell Max what she drew and pretends that her phone connection is breaking up. Max meets a judge that he thought he paid off to keep his house, but his insults lead to the judge ordering him to sell his house and his contents at a public auction. Upon knowing Max's plan to go to a cocktail party and then head to his beach house for one final visit, Kevin and Berger, with the help of their partners Windham and Edwina, rob another one of Max's houses. The next morning Max finds out that his house has been robbed and meets with Detective Alex Tardio of the Robbery Division. Having enough of Kevin stealing from him, he calls his head of security, Earl Redburn. Kevin finds out from Shelly that Max is going to Washington, D.C., for a Senate hearing and has an apartment there. Kevin and Berger go to Washington to try and rob Max's apartment. There, Kevin learns that Max intends to secretly bribe the senators, and replaces the bribe money with insulting notes in Max's name. Max and Earl later storm into the apartment, having deduced Kevin's presence there. In the ensuing scuffle, Kevin tries to steal back the ring, but instead steals Max's wedding ring. Afterwards, Amber decides that Kevin's feud with Max has gone too far and that she no longer cares about the ring. While Max later addresses the Senate Committee he gets a call from Kevin who tells him that if Max will give him his ring back he will give him back his. Max refuses and proceeds to repeatedly curse at Kevin. To the senators, and other viewers, it appears he is speaking to them, with the result being that the hearing ends very badly for Max. While going back to his apartment in Philadelphia, Walter quits as his lawyer and Earl tells him that he was hacked; Max tells Earl his plan to get Kevin once and for all. Kevin goes to Jack to find out where Amber is; Jack tells Kevin to stop robbing Max out of personal conflict and to forget about the ring. But when Berger tells Kevin about Max's bankruptcy auction and for how much his auction full of valuables is worth, Jack wants in on it too. Max gets a call from Lutetia about Max's behavior on TV, and tells him not to come home, while Amber breaks up with Kevin due to his obsession with Max and the ring. Lutetia finds Amber at Jack's bar wearing a jacket of hers that Kevin stole from their house and confronts her, Amber tells her that Max stole the ring she gave to Kevin. Knowing that they are both in the same situation, they come up with a plan. Gloria, thinking about Max, still draws the same card and decides to come clean. Noticing how bad it is, she tells him to put an end to it, but Max still refuses to give up Kevin's ring. Realizing Max's arrogant determination to keep the ring, she quits being his associate, and goes to Tardio to give him Max's company records. At the bankruptcy auction, Lutetia tells Max that she wishes him well and sends him a masseuse. While Earl keeps looking out for Kevin through his monitors, Berger, Jack, Windham, and Edwina set their scheme in motion. Edwina and Windham are disguised as waiters, with the real waiters bound and gagged in their truck. Berger is disguised as the auctioneer, while Jack is his associate, having tied up and gagged the original auctioneer. Shelly hacks into Max's security system. The crooks steal as much as they can, and later flee. Windham plants smoke bombs to obscure their escape and calls the fire brigade. At 2:00 Shelly plants a video of Kevin delivering a message to Max that he was being robbed without him being there on Earl's monitors. Angry and enraged, Max goes out into the smoke to find Kevin, but a firefighter, actually Kevin in disguise, drags him out of the smoke, stealing the ring in the process. Kevin steals Max's boat to escape, but Max jumps onto the boat and struggles with Kevin to get back the ring. While hitting a buoy, causing the boat to sink, Kevin and Max find out that the ring is a fake, the ring having an inscription inside it that said: "Grow up." a message that they both got from their lovers. Max realises that Lutetia had induced the masseuse to steal the ring during his massage. When Tardio finds Max and Kevin, Kevin tells Tardio that he was saving Max, while Max corroborates his story, telling Tardio that he had never met Kevin. Kevin thanks Max and tells him that he owes him one. While going back to the hotel where Amber used to be before she moved in with Kevin, she shows him the ring, revealing that she was the masseuse. She tells Kevin that the ring had bad luck and that he should throw it away. Kevin agrees and flings the ring out of sight and gets back together with Amber. Kevin, pretending to be Max's lawyer, fixes the Senate hearing and goes into the press conference victorious. When it is over Max and Kevin part ways, but as they do so, Kevin steals one of Max's watches. 

=====

Joel Goodson is a high-achieving high school student who lives with his wealthy parents in the Chicago North Shore area of Glencoe. His father wants him to attend Princeton University, his alma mater, so Joel participates in Future Enterprisers, an extracurricular activity in which students work in teams to create small businesses. When his parents go away on a trip, Joel's friend, Miles, convinces him to take advantage of his newfound freedom to have some fun. On the first night, he raids the liquor cabinet, plays the stereo loudly, and dances around the living room in his briefs and button-down shirt to "Old Time Rock and Roll". The following day, Miles calls a prostitute named Jackie on Joel's behalf. When Jackie turns out to be a trans woman, Joel pays her just to leave, but before she does, she gives Joel the number for another prostitute named Lana. That night, Joel is unable to sleep and hesitantly calls Lana, who turns out to be a gorgeous blonde woman, and they stay sexually engaged all night. Lana asks Joel for $300 for her services. He goes to the bank, but when he returns, Lana is gone, along with his mother's expensive Steuben glass egg. Joel finds Lana and demands the egg back, but they are interrupted by Lana's pimp Guido, who pulls a gun. While in his father's Porsche 928, Joel is chased by Guido, but eventually escapes. Lana tells Joel that the egg is with the rest of her stuff at Guido's. Joel lets Lana stay at his house while he goes to school. When he returns, his friends have come over, and Lana has invited another prostitute, Vicki, to stay, but Joel rejects the idea. The women leave, only to encounter Guido and get into an altercation on Joel's front lawn before running back into his house. Joel agrees to the women spending one more night. Later that night, Joel, Lana, Vicki, and Joel's friend Barry go out and get high on marijuana. After Lana accidentally undoes the parking brake in the Porsche while retrieving her purse, the car rolls down the hill and onto a pier (despite Joel's desperate attempt to stop it); the pier collapses, and the Porsche sinks into Lake Michigan. When Joel takes the car to a repair shop, he is horrified to learn how much it will cost to fix it. He and Lana later decide to turn his parents' house into a brothel for a night; Joel's share of the profits will pay for the repairs. The party is a huge success; the house is packed with Joel's friends and classmates and Lana's co-workers. However, the recruiter from Princeton, Rutherford, chooses that night to interview Joel for admission to Princeton. The interview is plagued by interruptions, and Rutherford is unimpressed by Joel's résumé. Afterwards, he stays at the party and becomes acquainted with Lana's friends. After the party, Joel and Lana go and make love on the Chicago "L". The next morning, Joel finds his house has been burgled. When he tries to call Lana, Guido answers; he tells Joel that he will let Joel buy back his furniture. Joel and his friends manage to get everything moved back in just as his parents walk in, though his mother notices a crack in her egg. Later, Joel's father congratulates him; the interviewer was very impressed, and Joel will be accepted into Princeton. Joel meets Lana at a restaurant, and they speculate about their future. She tells him that she wants to keep on seeing him; he jokes that it will cost her. 

=====

Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale and Terry the Dog as Toto Dorothy Gale lives with her dog Toto on a Kansas farm belonging to her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Toto bites neighbor Miss Almira Gulch on the leg, leading her to obtain a sheriff's order to have him euthanized. Miss Gulch takes Toto away but he escapes and returns to Dorothy; she decides to run away to save her dog. Not far from the farm, she meets Professor Marvel, a fortune teller who uses his crystal ball to make Dorothy believe that Aunt Em is heartbroken. Dorothy rushes home as a tornado approaches. Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, and the farmhands take shelter in the storm cellar and lock it behind them. Dorothy has to seek shelter in her bedroom, where the window is blown in and hits her on the head, knocking her unconscious. The house is sent spinning into the air, and she awakens to see various figures fly by, including Miss Gulch, who transforms into a witch on a broomstick. The house lands in Munchkinland in the Land of Oz. (The film switches from black-and-white Kansas to Oz in color.) Glinda the Good Witch of the North and the Munchkins welcome her as a heroine, as the falling house has killed the Wicked Witch of the East. Her sister, the Wicked Witch of the West, arrives to claim her sister's ruby slippers, but Glinda transfers them onto Dorothy's feet. Enraged, the Wicked Witch swears revenge on Dorothy and vanishes. Glinda tells Dorothy to follow the Yellow Brick Road to Emerald City, where she can ask the Wizard of Oz to help her return home. On her journey, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, who wants a brain; the Tin Woodman, who seeks a heart; and the Cowardly Lion, who desires courage. She invites them to accompany her and ask the Wizard for what they lack. Despite the Witch's attempts to stop them, they reach the city and see the Wizard, who appears as a giant ghostly head. He agrees to grant their requests if they bring him the Witch's broomstick. As they make their way to the Witch's castle, the Witch captures Dorothy and plots to kill her, as she cannot remove the slippers otherwise. Toto escapes and leads her three friends to the castle. They ambush three guards, don their uniforms and free Dorothy. The Witch and more guards pursue and surround them. The Witch sets fire to the Scarecrow, causing Dorothy to toss a bucket of water on him, inadvertently splashing the Witch, who melts away. The guards rejoice and give Dorothy her broomstick. Upon their return, the Wizard stalls in fulfilling his promises until Toto pulls back a curtain, exposing the "Wizard" as a fraud operating machinery. Admitting to being a humbug, he insists he is "a good man, but a bad wizard." He gives the Scarecrow a diploma, the Lion a medal, and the Tin Man a ticking heart-shaped clock, helping them see that they already possessed the qualities they wanted. He offers to take Dorothy and Toto home in his hot air balloon, revealing that he is also from Kansas and was originally a carnival showman before his balloon escaped his control and brought him to Emerald City. As Dorothy and the Wizard prepare to depart, the Wizard places the Scarecrow in charge of Emerald City, with the Tin Man and the Lion as his aides. Toto leaps from Dorothy's arms. As Dorothy pursues Toto, the balloon departs with the Wizard. Glinda then appears and tells Dorothy that she has always had the power to return home by using the ruby slippers. After Dorothy bids the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion goodbye, Glinda instructs her to tap her heels together three times and say, "There's no place like home." When Dorothy does, she wakes up in her bedroom, surrounded by her family and friends. Everyone dismisses her adventure as a dream, but Dorothy insists it was real. She says she will never run away again, and declares, "There's no place like home!" 

=====

In the summer of 1947, a pretentious thirteen-year-old girl called "Miss" Lily Jane Bobbit is liked by two boys, who are best friends. Using the funniest vocabulary and the ever so heavy accent, she manages to win the attraction of the town's people, including the love of the two best friends. As the story continues, it must be decided as to whether or not the two boys will remain best friends, as only one of them can win Miss Bobbit's heart. 

=====

In the pilot episode, two World War I soldiers stumble across the body of an officer while crossing no-man's land under heavy gunfire during the Battle of Amiens in 1918. Assuming the officer is dead, one soldier, Alf Stokes, attempts to rob the officer, much to the disgust of his comrade, James Twelvetrees. After it becomes apparent that the unconscious officer is not dead, the two men see their chance to escape the battle by carrying the officer to a field hospital. The two soldiers are later called to see the officer, The Honourable Teddy Meldrum, who says he is eternally grateful for their services, and tells them he will always be in their debt. The action then cuts to London in 1927, where James Twelvetrees has become the footman in the house of Lord Meldrum (brother of Teddy), at 12 Park Lane, Mayfair, and wants to further his position following the death of the butler.The street name is mentioned once in Series 1, Episode 5: "Fair Shares". In order to establish a telephone connection, the switchboard operator asks the number of the Meldrum residence. Meanwhile, Alf Stokes and Ivy, his daughter, have just been sacked from their jobsIn the 1988 Pilot Episode, Alf is erroneously handed a modern £10 note as goodbye wages, a fortune in 1927. In later episodes, old fashioned banknotes and prices are used. in a music hall (Alf took the music hall job after being dismissed for dishonesty as a butler). Alf sees his chance to apply for a job at the Meldrum's house, and after blackmailing his previous employer for references, becomes the new butler, much to the annoyance of James. Following the dismissal of a maid, after a backstairs relationship with the Honourable Teddy, Ivy is brought in by her father as the new maid (to hide the fact that she is Alf's daughter, the two decide that Ivy should use her mother's maiden name, Teasdale). The programme follows the various relationships between the upper-class and their servants, as well as Alf's scheming and James's attempts to stop him. The events depicted in the 26 episodes are time-lined though not directly following each other and are based mainly around the following threads: * Moral combat between Alf, James and Ivy, as Alf keeps developing schemes in order to achieve some fortune (and usually fails) and James and Ivy try to stop his actions; *Clashes about politics between James and Alf (James is a Conservative voter whilst Alf often talks of class struggle and revolution). * Adultery triangle between Lord Meldrum, Lady Agatha and Sir Ralph; * James arousing romantic interest in Poppy, Lady Agatha, and Ivy. * Developing love affair between Alf and Mrs Lipton the cook, and between Mrs Lipton and Police Constable Wilson; * Efforts of Teddy to dodge the marriage with Madge Cartwright; * Teddy's pursuit of servant girls; * Lord Meldrum's threats to deport Teddy to his rubber plantation in British Malaya; * Ivy's growing affections for James; * Business rise, fall and recovery of the House of Meldrum and its most important asset, the Union Jack Rubber Company; * The unpredictable actions of Lady Lavender. 

=====

Don Murray and Marilyn Monroe 280px A naive, rambunctious, overly enthusiastic and socially inept cowboy, Beauregard Decker, and his friend and father-figure Virgil Blessing take the bus from Timber Hill, Montana to Phoenix, Arizona, to participate in a rodeo. Virgil has encouraged the 21-year-old virgin, Beau, to take an interest in "girls". Initially reluctant and frightened of the idea, Beau declares that he hopes to find an "angel" and will know her when he sees her. Making trouble everywhere they go, he continues his unsophisticated behavior in Grace's Diner. In Phoenix, at the Blue Dragon Cafe, he imagines himself in love with the café's singer, Chérie, a talentless but ambitious performer from the Ozarks with aspirations of becoming a Hollywood star. Her rendition of "That Old Black Magic" entrances him and he forces her outside, despite the establishment's rules against it, kisses her and thinks that means they are engaged. Chérie is physically attracted to him but resists his plans to take her back to Montana. She has no intention of marrying him and tells him so, but he is too stubborn to listen. The next day, Beau gets a marriage license, and then takes an exhausted Cherie to the rodeo parade and the rodeo, where he rides the bucking bronco and then competes in the calf roping and the bull riding. Beau intends to marry Chérie at the rodeo, but she runs away. He tracks her down at the Cafe, where she jumps out a rear window and flees. Beau catches her, and forces her on the bus back to Montana. On the way, they stop at Grace's Diner, the same place the bus stopped on the way to Phoenix. Chérie tries to make another getaway while Beau is asleep on the bus, but the road ahead is blocked by snow and the bus won't be leaving at all. They are all stranded there. The bus driver Carl, the waitress Elma, and the café owner Grace by now all have learned that Beau is kidnapping and bullying the girl. Virgil and the bus driver fight him until he promises to apologize to Chérie and leave her alone. He, however, is unable to do so because he is humiliated about having been beaten. The next morning, the storm has cleared and everybody is free to go. Beau finally apologizes to Chérie for his abusive behavior and begs her forgiveness. He wishes her well and prepares to depart without her. Chérie approaches him and confesses that she's had many boyfriends and is not the kind of woman he thinks she is. Beau confesses his lack of experience to her. Beau asks to kiss her goodbye and they share their first real kiss. All Chérie wanted from a man was respect, which she had previously told the waitress when they sat together on the bus. This new Beau attracts Chérie. He accepts her past and this gesture touches her heart. She tells him that she will go anywhere with him. Virgil decides to stay behind. When Beau tries to coerce him to go with them, Chérie reminds him that he can't force Virgil to do what he wants. Having finally apparently learned his lesson, Beau offers Chérie his jacket and gallantly helps her onto the bus. 

=====

One night, thirteen- year-old Meg Murry meets an eccentric new neighbor, Mrs. Whatsit, who refers to something called a tesseract. She later finds out it is a scientific concept her father was working on before his mysterious disappearance. The following day, Meg, her child genius brother Charles, and fellow schoolmate Calvin visit Mrs. Whatsit's home, where the equally strange Mrs. Who and the unseen voice of Mrs. Which promise to help Meg find and rescue her father. Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which turn out to be supernatural beings who transport Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe through the universe by means of tesseract, a fifth-dimensional phenomenon explained as folding the fabric of space and time. Their first stop is the planet Uriel, a Utopian world filled with Centaur-like beings who live in a state of light and love. The Mrs. Ws reveal to the children that the universe is under attack from an evil being who appears as a large dark cloud called The Black Thing, which is essentially the personification of evil. The children are taken to visit the Happy Medium, a woman with a crystal ball through which they see that Earth is partially covered by the darkness, although great religious figures, philosophers, scientists, and artists have been fighting against it. Mrs. Whatsit is revealed to be a former star who exploded in an act of self- sacrifice to fight the darkness. The children travel to the dark planet of Camazotz, which has succumbed to the Black Thing and where Meg's father is trapped because he would not succumb to the group mind that causes inhabitants to behave in a mechanical way. In order to find their father, Charles Wallace deliberately allows himself to be hypnotized. He takes Meg and Calvin to the place where Meg's father, Alexander, is being held prisoner. Charles Wallace then takes them to It, the evil disembodied brain with powerful abilities that controls the planet. Using special powers from Mrs. Who's glasses, Alexander tessers Calvin, Meg, and himself to the planet Ixchel before IT can control them all. Charles Wallace is left behind, still under the influence of IT and Meg is paralyzed from from injuries sustained during the trip. An inhabitant of the planet with featureless faces, tentacles and four arms proves to be both wise and gentle and cures Meg's paralysis. The trio of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which arrive and charge Meg with rescuing Charles Wallace from IT. Arriving at the building where IT resides, they find Charles Wallace under IT's influence. Inspired by hints from the Mrs. Ws, Meg focuses all her love at Charles Wallace and is able to free him from IT's control. They all then tesser back to Earth and the Mrs. Ws leave. 

=====

With many of the seals on his prison broken, the Dark One has grown in power. He causes global warming, revives the Forsaken Aginor and Balthamel as Osan'gar and Aran'gar, and creates Shaidar Haran, his Myrddraal incarnation. In response to Rand al'Thor's amnesty on male channelers, Mazrim Taim swears allegiance to him. Together they form the Black Tower, which trains male channelers called Asha'man. Rand is diplomatically courted by both the rebel Aes Sedai in Salidar, who send an envoy to Caemlyn, and the Aes Sedai of the White Tower, who send an envoy (many of which are in fact Black Ajah) to Cairhien. In an unsuccessful attempt to control Rand, Alanna Mosvani of the rebel Aes Sedai bonds Rand as her Warder against his will. Additionally, Min Farshaw, who had traveled with the Salidar Aes Sedai, reunites with Rand and gives him much-needed emotional support. Rand later discovers Salidar's location and sends Mat Cauthon there, to retrieve Elayne Trakand who will rule Caemlyn and Cairhien in his stead. Perrin Aybara leaves the Two Rivers to join Rand in Caemlyn. The deposed Queen of Andor, Morgase Trakand, goes to Amadicia for aid in returning to the throne but is instead taken captive by the Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light, Pedron Niall. In Salidar, Elayne and Nynaeve al'Meara have made numerous magical discoveries thanks to Moghedien, who they secretly hold in captivity. Most significantly, Nynaeve Heals Siuan Sanche, Leane Sharif, and Logain Ablar, restoring their abilities to channel. Egwene al'Vere is named the Amyrlin of the rebel Aes Sedai and travels to Salidar through Tel'aran'rhiod. Upon arrival, she unofficially raises Nynaeve and Elayne to Aes Sedai and sends them and Aviendha to Ebou Dar to search for a ter'angreal called the "Bowl of the Winds" to break the Dark One's control of the climate. Mat arrives at this time and reluctantly goes with them. After their departure, Egwene secretly arranges the escape of Logain, who then goes to the Black Tower. Aran'gar infiltrates Salidar and later frees Moghedien. Shortly after Perrin joins him, Rand is kidnapped by Elaida's Aes Sedai, who torture him en route to Tar Valon. Learning of the kidnapping, Perrin leads Rand's followers to the climactic Battle of Dumai's Wells. At the end of the battle, the rebel Aes Sedai are forced to swear fealty to the Dragon Reborn while the surviving White Tower Aes Sedai remain captives. 

=====

Ponyboy Curtis, a teenaged member of a loose gang of "greasers", is leaving a movie theater when he is jumped by "Socs", the greasers' rival gang. Several greasers, including Ponyboy's two older brothers—the paternal Darry and the popular Sodapop—come to his rescue. The next night, Ponyboy and two greaser friends, the hardened Dally and the quiet Johnny, meet Cherry and Marcia, a pair of Soc girls, at a drive-in movie theater. Cherry spurns Dally's rude advances, but Ponyboy ends up speaking civilly with Cherry, emotionally connecting with a Soc for the first time in his life. Afterward, Ponyboy, Johnny, and their wisecracking friend Two-Bit begin to walk Cherry and Marcia home, when they are stopped by Cherry's boyfriend Bob, who badly beat up Johnny a few months back. Bob and the greasers exchange taunts, but Cherry prevents a fight by willingly leaving with Bob. Ponyboy gets home at two in the morning, enraging Darry until he suddenly slaps Ponyboy. Pony runs out the door and meets up with Johnny, expressing his anger at Darry's increasing coldness in the wake of his parents' recent deaths in a car crash. Running away from home, Ponyboy and Johnny wander into a park, where Bob and four other Socs surround them. After some heated talk, Ponyboy spits at the Socs, prompting them to attempt to drown him in a nearby fountain, but Johnny stabs Bob, killing him and dispersing the rest. Terrified as to what to do next, Ponyboy and Johnny rush to find Dally, who gives them money and a loaded gun, directing them to hide in an abandoned church in Windrixville. During their stay there, Pony cuts and dyes his hair as a disguise, reads Gone with the Wind to Johnny, and, upon viewing a beautiful sunrise, recites the poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost. Days later, Dally comes to check on them, revealing that violence between the greasers and Socs has escalated since Bob's death into all-out city-wide warfare, with Cherry acting out of guilt as a spy for the greasers. Johnny decides to turn himself in and Dally agrees to take the boys back home. As they attempt to leave, they notice the church has caught fire and several local schoolchildren have become trapped inside. The greasers run inside the burning church to save the children, but Ponyboy is rendered unconscious by the fumes. At the hospital he discovers that he and Dally are not badly injured, but a piece of the church roof fell on Johnny and broke his back. Sodapop and Darry come to the hospital; Darry breaks down and cries. Ponyboy then realizes that Darry cares about him, and is only hard on him because he loves him and cares about his future. The following morning the newspapers declare Pony and Johnny heroes, but Johnny will be charged with manslaughter for Bob's death. Two-Bit tells them that the greaser-Soc rivalry is to be settled in a final rumble. Ponyboy and Two-Bit are approached by a Soc named Randy, Bob's best friend, who expresses remorse for his involvement in the gang war, lacks confidence about the rumble ending the feud, and says he will not participate. Later, Ponyboy visits Johnny at the hospital, where he is in critical condition. On their way home, Pony spots Cherry and they talk. Cherry says she is unwilling to visit Johnny in the hospital because he killed her boyfriend. Pony calls her a traitor, but after she explains herself they end on good terms. After escaping the hospital, Dally shows up just in time for the rumble. The greasers win the brutal fight. Afterward, Pony and Dally hurry back to the hospital to see Johnny, but he dies moments later and a maniacal Dally runs out of the room. Pony returns home that night feeling confused and disoriented. Dally calls the house to say that he has robbed a store and is running from the police. The greasers find Dally deliberately pointing an unloaded gun at the police, causing them to shoot and kill him. Overwhelmed, Ponyboy faints and is sick in bed for many days due to the resulting concussion from the rumble. When the hearing finally comes, the judge frees Ponyboy from responsibility for Bob's death and allows Pony to remain at home with Darry and Soda. Ponyboy returns to school, but his grades drop. Although he is failing English, his teacher, Mr. Syme, says he will pass him if he writes a decent theme. In the copy of Gone with the Wind that Johnny gave him before dying, Ponyboy finds a letter from Johnny describing how he will die proudly after saving the kids from the fire. Johnny also urges Ponyboy to "stay gold". Ponyboy decides to write his English assignment about the recent events, and begins his essay with the opening line of the novel: "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home..." 

=====

The show revolves around a group of friends in their mid 20s to early 30s who live in a St Kilda block of flats. Their interaction with one another, relationships with other friends, and romantic interests, along with their personal and career developments, are featured. The actual block is 14A Acland Street, St. Kilda and the rooftop is at the Belvedere Flats on the Esplanade in the same suburb. 

=====

The crew discover a wrecked Borg scout ship with a single survivor: a young Borg drone. Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) insists on treating the surviving Borg despite the concerns of Captain Jean- Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). On Picard's orders, the drone is confined and monitored by security forces at all times and is prevented from contacting the Borg Collective. Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) and Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) assist Crusher in bringing the Borg back to health. As they come to understand the workings of the Borg, La Forge and Data devise an idea of using the Borg drone as a weapon of mass destruction. By implanting an unsolvable geometric formula into his mind and returning him to the Collective, the formula should rapidly spread (similar to a computer virus) and disable the Borg. Crusher is aghast at this suggestion, considering it equivalent to genocide, while Picard and the other senior crew deliberate on the ethics of this plan. The Borg drone initially calls himself "Third of Five", but ends up referring to and understanding himself as "Hugh" – the name given to him by La Forge. Hugh discusses how the Borg only wish to learn about other cultures through assimilation, but La Forge counters this argument, discussing aspects of individuality that make them human and unique. In further debates, La Forge finds himself becoming a friend to Hugh, and begins to doubt his previous idea. This is further complicated when Hugh shows elements of individualism. The crew now debate whether it is appropriate to sacrifice one individual to protect the majority, though Picard is still insistent on destroying the Collective. Crusher and La Forge arrange to have Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), who has a similar loathing for the Borg because they destroyed her homeworld, speak to Hugh. She finds Hugh to be not a mindless drone but a confused young man, and she agrees Hugh is no longer a Borg. Guinan convinces Picard to meet with Hugh, as well, and Picard comes to the same conclusion, in part because Hugh refers to himself as "I" instead of the Borg's collective "we" during their discussion. Picard abandons the proposed plan and instead offers Hugh asylum within the Federation. Hugh expresses enthusiasm at the prospect of remaining with La Forge but ultimately refuses, recognizing that the Borg will still come looking for him. He offers to be returned to the crash site, where he will be found and re-assimilated by the Borg. Picard hopes that, once Hugh is reconnected, the sense of individualism Hugh has learned will spread throughout the Collective. La Forge accompanies Hugh to the crash site and, from a safe distance, watches the Borg recover him. Just as the Borg transport out, Hugh turns to give La Forge a parting glance. 

=====

Commander Riker's birthday celebration is interrupted as he, Geordi La Forge, and Worf are sent down to a huge cavern on Alpha Onias III, an uninhabited Class M planet, to investigate unusual readings. After their arrival, the cavern suddenly fills with toxic gases, and the three officers fall unconscious. Riker awakens in sick bay to find that sixteen years have passed. He is now Captain of the Enterprise with Data as his first officer, and Picard has been promoted to admiral, with Deanna Troi serving as his aide. Riker cannot remember any event after the Alpha Onias III mission, which Doctor Crusher explains is a side effect of a viral infection he contracted on the planet, and his memories of the intervening events may or may not return in time. Riker learns that he was married, is now widowed, and has a son (Chris Demetral) named Jean-Luc (named after Picard). He is further startled when Tomalak — a Romulan commander who was formerly an archenemy of the Enterprise, now an ambassador — beams onto the ship to negotiate a peace treaty with the Federation. Despite Picard's reassurances, Riker is hesitant to reveal sensitive Starfleet information in negotiating the treaty. As Riker struggles to adjust to his new life, numerous inconsistencies arise. The Enterprise computer is uncharacteristically slow, numerous systems experience minor technical glitches, and Geordi is unable to correct the problems. Finally, Riker discovers that his late wife "Min" is Minuet, a fictional holodeck character he fell in love with (in the first-season episode "11001001"). Riker realizes that the entire "future" he has been experiencing is a charade and confronts Picard and Tomalak on the Enterprise bridge, with more inconsistencies arising as he does so, proving his suspicions. Suddenly, the false future fades away, revealing a Romulan holodeck. Commander Tomalak is revealed to be behind the simulation, the object of which was to trick Riker into giving away the location of a key Federation outpost. The Romulans, Tomalak explains, were fooled by the intensity of Riker's memories of Minuet and had incorporated her into their fantasy on the assumption that she was real. Riker is put in a holding area, where he meets the boy whose image the Romulans had used to create his "son". The boy identifies himself as "Ethan". Together, they manage to escape and briefly elude their Romulan guards. However, as the two are hiding from their pursuers, Ethan inadvertently refers to Tomalak as "Ambassador", instead of "Commander". Riker realizes that he is still in a simulation; confronting Ethan over it, he demands that the game end immediately and that he be allowed to leave. Everything disappears once more, leaving only Riker and Ethan back in the cavern on Alpha Onias III. Riker is then able to contact the ship and learns that Worf and La Forge had beamed up without incident, but the Enterprise was unable to locate him. After Riker advises the captain that he will presently report back after learning more about his situation, Ethan confesses that he had created the simulations, using sophisticated scanners to read his mind and create the "reality" they experienced. Ethan's planet had been attacked and his people killed; his mother had hidden him in the cavern for his own safety, with all the simulation equipment, before she died; and Ethan, all alone, had been yearning for real companionship. Realizing Ethan's intentions were not hostile, Riker offers him refuge on the Enterprise. Ethan accepts Riker's offer and after Ethan reveals his true form as a grey-skinned insectoid alien named Barash, the two beam onto the ship. 

=====

At Munich's Oktoberfest, veteran CIA field agent Miles Kendig (Matthau) and his team foil a microfilm transfer. Upon Kendig's return to Washington, his boss, Myerson (Beatty), reassigns him to a desk job because Kendig did not arrest Yaskov (Lom), the head of the KGB in Europe. Kendig explains to Myerson that he knows how Yaskov thinks, and it would take time and resources to identify and learn about a new replacement. Kendig's good friend and protege, Joe Cutter (Waterston), is nevertheless assigned to take over his mentor's old job. Instead of accepting this situation, Kendig takes action. He shreds his personnel file and flies to Salzburg to visit former lover Isobel Von Schoenenberg (Jackson), whom he has not seen in a while. Yaskov, guessing what has happened, meets Kendig and invites him to defect to the KGB; when Kendig refuses, Yaskov asks sarcastically if Kendig will be retiring and writing his memoirs. On the spot, Kendig decides to do exactly that: write and publish a memoir exposing the dirty tricks and general incompetence of Myerson's CIA. Isobel is horrified, saying that Myerson will send agents to kill him. She nevertheless helps by mailing copies of Kendig's first chapter to spy chiefs in the U.S., Soviet Union, China, France, Italy, and Great Britain. Myerson assigns Cutter to stop Kendig, and Yaskov, not wanting his own agency's follies exposed, also pursues his old adversary. Kendig baits his pursuers by sending them explosive chapters and by periodically informing them of his location. Leaving Europe, he returns to the U.S., cheerfully renting Myerson's own unoccupied Georgia family home, where he writes more chapters. After purposely leaking his address, Kendig maneuvers the FBI (which has jurisdiction) into shooting up Myerson's home with both bullets and tear gas, to Myerson's great dismay. Kendig flies to Bermuda by chartered seaplane, then on to London to present his publisher with the final chapter. Yaskov informs Cutter that one of his agents has spotted Kendig in London by chance. Kendig purchases a vintage biplane—a Stampe version of the Tiger Moth—and hires an engineer to custom-modify it for a specific task. Myerson meets Kendig's publisher, who rebuffs his threatening bluster and then tells them where Kendig's hotel room is. At the vacated room, all the pursuers read copies of the final chapter he has left for them. Kendig later ambushes Cutter in his hotel room, ties him up, gags him, and informs Cutter that he will be flying across the English Channel from a small airfield near Beachy Head. Meanwhile, Isobel gives her CIA minders the slip, and crosses the Channel by hovercraft to rendezvous early the next morning with Kendig. While everyone converges on the airfield, Kendig suffers a flat tire on his way and is taken by the local police to their station. When a policeman recognizes him from a posted fugitive bulletin, Kendig escapes by short-circuiting an electrical socket and stealing a police car. Kendig reaches the airfield, and the Americans and Yaskov arrive by helicopter soon after. Kendig's biplane takes off and is pursued by Myerson in the helicopter. He evades Myerson's gunfire for a while, but the plane is finally hit and suddenly explodes over the Channel. Myerson assumes that Kendig is finally dead. Cutter, however, remarks wryly that he "better stay dead". Meanwhile, Kendig sneaks away from a deteriorating building on the edge of the airfield, using a barrel of used engine oil to dispose of the remote control he had used to fly and destroy the biplane. He and Isobel set out for a few weeks in the south of France. Months later, Kendig's explosive memoir (also titled Hopscotch) has become an international bestseller. Disguised as a Sikh and speaking with a British accent, Kendig buys a copy of his own book in a local bookstore, much to Isobel's complete exasperation with his disguises. 

=====

The film begins in a working-class neighborhood in the Paris of the 1960s. The main character, Moїse Schmidt (Momo), is a young Jewish boy growing up without a mother and with a father afflicted by crippling depression. Momo is fascinated by the elderly Turkish Muslim man, Ibrahim Demirci (), who runs a grocery store across the street from his apartment (where Momo often shoplifts). Their relationship develops and soon Momo feels closer to Ibrahim than to his father. Ibrahim affectionately calls Moїse Momo, and adopts him when his father leaves and commits suicide. Momo and Ibrahim go on a journey in their new car (a Simca Aronde Océane) to Turkey, Ibrahim's native country, where Momo learns about Ibrahim's culture. At the end of their adventure, Ibrahim is killed in a car crash and Momo returns to Paris to take over the shop. 

=====

The main character is an unnamed 'whisky priest', who combines a great power for self-destruction with pitiful cravenness, an almost painful penitence, and a desperate quest for dignity. By the end, though, the priest "acquires a real holiness."H.J.Donaghy, Graham Greene, p.40 The other principal character is a police lieutenant tasked with hunting down this priest. This Lieutenant – also unnamed but thought to be based upon Tomás Garrido CanabalThe Power and the Glory New York: Viking, 1990. Introduction by John Updike. – is a committed socialist who despises the Church. The overall situation is this: Catholicism is outlawed in Mexico. However, while the other states of Mexico seem to follow a Don't-ask-don't-tell policy, the state of Tabasco enforces the ban rigorously. Mexico, or at least Tabasco, is ruled on socialist grounds, and priests have either been settled by the state with wives (breaking celibacy) and pensions in exchange for their renouncing the faith and being strictly banned from fulfilling priestly functions (such as one Padre José), or else have left the state or are on the run,or have been shot. The story starts with the arrival of the main character in a small country town and then follows him on his trip through Tabasco, where he tries to minister to the people as best he can. In doing so, he is faced by a lot of problems, not least of which is that Tabasco is also prohibitionist, with the unspoken prime objective to hinder celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass, for which actual wine is an essential. (It is, therefore, quite easy to get, say, whiskey, despite it being forbidden, but very difficult to get wine.) He is also haunted by his personal problems and past and present sins, especially by the fact that he fathered a child in his parish some years before; additionally, his use of whiskey may be bordering on addiction and certainly is beyond the limit of good measure in his own view. (In one scene, both of these problems are mixed: the protagonist tries to procure a bottle of wine for Holy Mass, needing to go to very high officials to do so, with an additional bottle of whiskey for cover and also for his personal use; not being able to reveal himself, he is talked into emptying the wine on the spot and in vain tries to offer the whiskey instead.) As for his daughter, he meets her, but is unable to feel repentant about what happened. Rather, he feels a deep love for the evil-looking and awkward little girl and decides to do everything in his power to save her from damnation. During his journey the priest also encounters a mestizo who later reveals himself to be a Judas figure. The chief antagonist, however, is the lieutenant, who is morally irreproachable, yet cold and inhumane. While he is supposedly "living for the people", he puts into practice a diabolic plan of taking hostages from villages and shooting them, if it proves that the priest has sojourned in a village but is not denounced. The lieutenant has also had bad experiences with the church in his youth, and as a result there is a personal element in his search for the whisky priest. The lieutenant thinks that all members of the clergy are fundamentally evil, and believes that the church is corrupt, and does nothing but provide delusion to the people. In his flight from the lieutenant and his posse, the priest escapes into a neighbouring province, only to re-connect with the mestizo, who persuades the priest to return to hear the confession of a dying man. Though the priest suspects that it is a trap, he feels compelled to fulfil his priestly duty. Although he finds the dying man, it is a trap and the lieutenant captures the priest. The lieutenant admits he has nothing against the priest as a man, but he must be shot "as a danger". On the eve of the execution, the lieutenant shows mercy and attempts to enlist Padre José to hear the condemned man's confession (which in extremis the Church would allow, and which the protagonist has agreed to), but the effort is thwarted by Padre José's wife. The lieutenant is convinced that he has "cleared the province of priests". In the final scene, however, another priest arrives in the town. One faithful Catholic woman we had previously encountered telling lives of the saints in the underground has added the life of the protagonist to her repertoire, while forbidding her son to ever remember that this priest smelled strangely out of his mouth. This, among other possible readings, suggests that the Catholic Church cannot be destroyed. On a lighter level, it also suggests that a certain type of devotee will ever try to smooth down rough-edged saints into Fairchild family-like picturebook heroes, even if it stands in the way of properly celebrating their very real faith and heroism. 

=====



=====

The Centre is continually tracking down Jarod's location. The team in charge of recapturing him is Sydney, computer expert Broots (Jon Gries), and "Miss Parker" (Andrea Parker), a dogged and formidable operative who was raised in the Centre and knew Jarod as a child. Though she is no longer an active field operative, she is "recalled from Corporate" during the pilot episode and put in charge of Jarod's recapture. While Sydney feels loyalty to Jarod and wishes his safe return, Miss Parker is under orders to "preferably" bring him in alive and will not hesitate to use deadly force. Fearing for Jarod's safety, Sydney at times undermines Miss Parker and will directly prevent her from using lethal methods to prevent Jarod's continued evasion of his pursuers. In the pilot, Parker questions Sydney's commitment to the Centre, telling him he can be a scientist for the Centre or "mommy" to Jarod, but not both. Despite the Centre's resources, Jarod often stays a step or two ahead of his pursuers. While tracking down clues to his past and his parents, Jarod also targets criminals who have gone unpunished or undetected by the law. Through assumed identities (which involve different last names but always "Jarod" as a first name), he uncovers the truth about these crimes and lures the perpetrators into staged set-ups that emulate the harm they have done to others and forces them to confess their crimes, leading to their downfall. At times, he leaves Miss Parker and Sydney deliberate clues ("breadcrumbs") that point to the criminals he is targeting and why. During his adventures, Jarod also discovers the joys of the childhood he was denied while being raised in isolation, such as bubblegum, ice cream, a Slinky, and Silly Putty. 

=====

The play recounts the long, rainy afternoon that Hally ("Master Harold") spends with Sam and Willie, two middle-aged African servants of his parents' household, in a tea shop owned by Hally's mother. Sam and Willie have cared for seventeen- year-old Hally his whole life. At the start of the play Sam and Willie are practising ballroom steps in preparation for a major competition, while maintaining the tea shop. Business is slow due to the rain. Sam is quickly revealed as being the more worldly of the two. When Willie, in broken English, describes his ballroom partner and girlfriend as lacking enthusiasm, Sam correctly diagnoses the problem: Willie beats her if she doesn't know the steps. Hally then arrives home from school, and cheerfully asks if the two are ready for the competition. Sam is the unacknowledged yet de facto mentor to the boy since childhood, and has always treated Hally as his nephew/ward. Sam hopes to skillfully guide Hally through the difficult passage from childhood into manhood. And hopefully thereby, takes up those values and viewpoints of an adult; and a man, that Sam, has over the years lain down; and, that all men try to leave as their legacy of shepherding an adolescent boy into manhood. Willie, for his part, has always played the "loyal black"; who has always called the white Afrikaner boy (now young man) "Master Harold"; As if, as a man of forty-five, he was addressing a superior; even when Hally was six. The conversation between the three moves from Hally's school-work, to an intellectual discussion on "A Man of Magnitude", where they mention various historical figures of the time and their contribution to society, to flashbacks of Hally, Sam and Willie when they lived in a Boarding House. Hally warmly remembers the simple act of flying a kite Sam had made for him out of junk; we later learn that Sam made it to cheer Hally up after he was embarrassed greatly by his father's public and continuing drunkenness. Conversation then turns to Hally's 500-word English composition. The play reaches an emotional apex as the beauty of the ballroom dancing floor ("a world without collisions") is used as a transcendent metaphor for life. Almost immediately despair returns: Sam had early on mentioned why Hally's mother is not present; the hospital had called about his father, who has been there receiving treatment for complications from a leg he lost in World War II, to discharge him, and she had left to bring him home. However, Hally, indicating that his father had been in considerable pain the previous day, insisted that his father wasn't well enough to be discharged, and that the call must've been about a bad turn, rather than a discharge notice. A call from Hally's mother at the hospital confirms that Hally's father, is manipulating the hospital into discharging him, although he is indeed, not feeling any better than before, so it's still unofficial, and Hally remains hopeful that the discharge won't happen. A second call from Hally's mother later reveals that the discharge is official, and Hally's father is now home. Hally is distraught about this news, since his father, who in addition to being crippled, is revealed to be a tyrannical alcoholic, and his being home will make home life unbearable with his drinking, fighting, and need for constant treatment, which includes demeaning tasks of having to massage his stump, and empty chamber pots of urine. Hally vents to his two black friends years of anger, and pain, viciously mocking his father and his condition. But when Sam chastises him for doing so, Hally, although ashamed of himself, turns on him, unleashing vicarious racism, that he learned from his father, creating possibly permanent rifts in his relationship with both Sam and Willie. For the first time, apart from hints throughout the play, Hally begins explicitly to treat Sam and Willie as subservient help rather than as friends or playmates, insisting that Sam call him "Master Harold" and spitting on him, among other things. Sam is hurt and angry and both he and Willie are just short of attacking Hally, but they both understand that Hally is really causing himself the most pain. There is a glimmer of hope for reconciliation at the end, when Sam addresses Hally by his nickname again and asks to start over the next day, harkening back to the simple days of the kite. Hally, horrified about what he's done, is barely able to face Sam, responding without looking up "It's still raining, Sam. You can't fly kites on rainy days, remember," then asks Willie to lock up the tea shop, and walks out into the rain, as Sam mentions that the bench Hally sat on as he flew the kite said "Whites Only" but Hally was too excited to notice it, and that he can (figuratively) leave it at any time. The play ends while Sam and Willie console each other by ballroom dancing together. 

=====

A couple goes camping in the Scottish Highlands. The woman gives the man a silver letter opener as a present; shortly afterward they are killed in their tent by unseen assailants. Meanwhile, a soldier named Cooper runs through a forest in North Wales. He attacks his pursuers, but is overwhelmed and wrestled to the ground. It is revealed that Cooper is trying to join a special forces unit but fails when he refuses to shoot a dog in cold blood. He is returned to his unit by Captain Richard Ryan. Four weeks later, a squad of six British soldiers, including Cooper, are dropped into the Scottish Highlands to carry out a training exercise against a Special Air Service unit. The following morning, they find the SAS unit's savaged remains. A badly wounded Captain Ryan, the only survivor, makes cryptic references to what attacked them. The troops retreat when unseen assailants begin pursuing them. While retreating, Bruce is impaled by a tree branch, which kills him, and Sergeant Wells is attacked. He is rescued by Cooper and carried to a rural roadside where the group meets Megan, a zoologist who takes them to a lonely house belonging to an unknown family. The soldiers who remain are Wells, Cooper, Spoon, Joe, and Terry. As darkness falls, the house is surrounded by the attackers, who are revealed to be werewolves. The survivors try to get in the Land Rover but find it has been destroyed by the werewolves. The soldiers maintain a desperate defence against the creatures, believing that if they can make it to sunrise, the werewolves will revert to human form. Cooper and Megan treat Wells' wounds. After Terry is abducted and their ammunition runs short, they realize they will not last and decide to try to escape. Spoon creates a diversion while Joe steals a Land Rover from the garage. Joe drives up to the house door, but is then killed by a werewolf that was hiding in the back seat. Under interrogation, Ryan reveals that the government had sent him on a mission to capture a live werewolf, so that it could be studied and exploited as a weapon; Cooper's squad was supposed to be the bait. An enraged Wells and Cooper attempt to kill Ryan, but he transforms into a werewolf due to his wounds and escapes into the forest. It is then revealed that the unknown family of the house are the werewolves. The soldiers try blowing up the barn - where Megan told them the werewolves must be hiding - with petrol, gas canisters, matches, and the Land Rover. Once the structure has been destroyed, Megan reveals that not only were there no werewolves in the barn, but she is a werewolf, as well. She also reveals that she unlocked the back door to the house, allowing the other werewolves to get inside. Before she fully transforms, Wells shoots her in the head. He and Cooper run upstairs, while Spoon fights a werewolf in the kitchen. Using nearby surroundings to his advantage, he gains the upper hand but is eventually killed when a second werewolf intervenes. Wells and Cooper shoot through the floor upstairs to elude the werewolves, and drop into the kitchen, where they find Spoon's remains. As he begins to transform into a werewolf, Wells orders Cooper to take shelter in the cellar and gives him a roll of photographic film (which was in a flashgun camera used to stun the werewolves) to prove what has happened. The werewolves break into the kitchen and confront Wells as he cuts a gas line and blows up the house, killing himself and the werewolves. As the sun rises, Cooper attempts to leave, but the werewolf Ryan confronts him. After a brutal fight, Cooper stabs Ryan in the chest with the silver letter opener, weakening him enough to allow Cooper to shoot him in the head. Cooper and Megan's Border Collie, Sam, emerges from the cellar. Cooper's story, with photographs, is shown reported only in a sensationalist tabloid newspaper with title "Werewolves ate my platoon!", under the results of an England vs. Germany football match. 

=====

The story of BPS revolves around a "freelance artist" named Akira Shirase. He's a very talented, yet mysterious computer programmer. Because of his incredible abilities, he's contacted by several individuals (curiously, all of them are very similar persons named Akizuki Kaoru) to do all sorts of strange computer-related hacking/security jobs. He's a very quiet guy who lives alone in a small apartment near his niece's house. At first, the episodes revolved around some freelance jobs that highlighted his abilities - however, later on in the series, characters came back and offered help or plot twists. The school that Shirase had gone to had been hinted throughout the series, and it finally made an appearance in the last episode, when some of the characters began to show their hidden relationships to the others. However, the series was not continued. 

=====



=====

The novel's protagonist, Isham Stone, is on a mission to kill the man allegedly responsible for the destruction of civilization: a scientist named Wendell Carlson, currently living alone at the former Columbia University in what used to be New York City. Isham has been told by his father, scientist Jacob Stone, that Carlson is a madman who brought the world to its current state by releasing a "hyperosmic plague": a virus that increases the sensitivity of the human sense of smell by many hundred times. With their senses of smell thus heightened, humans were unable to tolerate the odors produced by their own pollution-producing technology; the result was mass insanity and widespread rioting. Another result was the discovery of a species of "Muskys" -- intelligent plasmoids -- that live in the Earth's upper atmosphere and feed on human pollutants. The curtailment of technological activity has caused them to approach the planet's surface and attack human beings, on whose fear they are apparently able to feed. Isham sets out for New York and succeeds in locating Carlson. He learns from Carlson, however, that the man actually responsible for developing and releasing the plague is Isham's father Jacob. Isham returns to his home colony and sets a trap to kill his father, then returns to New York. The original novella By Any Other Name ends at this point. The novel continues as Isham's old teacher, Collaci, sets out to bring him back from New York to face a murder charge. Isham is successfully captured, but before he can be tried, his colony is attacked by Agros (anti-technology worshippers of Pan) and he is taken prisoner. Eventually Isham manages to bring about a measure of peace between the scientists and the neo-Luddites -- and also learns that his father is not dead. The newly reconciled factions of humanity set out to rebuild civilization. 

=====

The main characters of the book are Ashley Patterson, an introverted workaholic, her co-workers, Toni Prescott, an outgoing singer and dancer, shy artist Alette Peters and Ashley's father, Dr. Steven Patterson. The three women do not get along very well, because of their dissimilar natures. Toni and Alette generally maintain a friendship, with Alette a calming influence, but Toni dislikes Ashley and criticizes her harshly. All three have issues with their mothers having told them they'd never amount to anything. Ashley fears that somebody is following her. She finds her house lights turned on when she returns from work, her personal effects in disarray, and someone has written "You will die" on her mirror with a lipstick. She thinks someone's broken into her house. She requests a police escort, but the next morning, the police officer assigned to this duty is found dead in her apartment. Two other murders have already taken place, with an identical pattern. All the murdered men had been castrated and were having sex before being murdered. Evidence points to the same woman being involved in all three cases. When a gift from one of the murdered men to Toni is found among Ashley's things, she is identified as the killer and arrested. At this point, it is revealed that the three women are three selves of a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder. Ashley's father persuades an attorney friend, David Singer, to represent Ashley. The second half of the novel deals with the trial, complete with endless squabbling between opposing psychiatrists as to whether or not MPD is real. Finally when David introduces Toni, the violent alter of Ashley, the court is convinced that Ashley is innocent. Ashley is committed to an insane asylum and in the course of therapy is introduced to her two "alters" and relives the horrific events that shattered her mind. She was sexually abused during her childhood, and this made her develop a strong hatred towards men. In the asylum, Ashley is treated for MPD by Dr. Gilbert and Dr. Otto Lewis. Gilbert falls for her and during her crisis, he too feels her pain and wants to comfort her. It is revealed that her father, Dr. Steven, was the one who sexually abused her, causing her to develop Dissociative Identity Disorder resulting in the creation of the alter Toni, and becomes a thing of her mother's detest. While living in Italy during her teenage years, she was once again assaulted by her father, leading to the creation of Alette. The structuring of both the alters is very interesting. The first alter represents her struggle and fear as a helpless child without sexual maturity, and (Toni) develops into a protective one and becomes murderous when encountered with similar conditions. While the second alter (Alette) represents her feeling of shame and pain of being breached, thus developing into a source of console exhibiting warmth and motherly love who has good rapport with Ashley. However, Toni is enraged when she learns that the woman her father is about to marry has a three-year-old daughter and is afraid that the girl would suffer the same fate she had. Dr. Gilbert drains anger out of Toni by showing the news everyday, making Toni softer with each passing day. This softer side of Toni is only a front to show Dr. Gilbert she has finally accepted everything so she and Alette can get out of the asylum to kill her father, who is staying in The Hamptons for Christmas. Soon, Dr. Gilbert releases her from the asylum as he believes she is cured. In the end, Ashley is shown to be traveling on a train to The Hamptons, where her father is staying, when Toni suddenly shows up to kill him. Toni in the last part of the novel: 

=====

On the colony planet of Harlan’s World, Takeshi Kovacs and his partner Sarah Sachilowski, former Envoys who had returned to a life of crime, are killed by a U.N. colonial commando unit. Kovacs is sentenced to a long term in stack storage. On Earth, a Meth named Laurens Bancroft has died in mysterious circumstances in Bay City (formerly San Francisco). The re-sleeved Bancroft has no memories of the previous two days, including his own death. Though police officer Kristin Ortega believes he committed suicide, Bancroft is convinced he was murdered. He hires Kovacs to investigate. Kovacs discovers that Bancroft has been involved with numerous prostitutes, including recent murder victim Elizabeth Elliot. Elizabeth’s mother Irene was imprisoned for illegally hacking Bancroft’s memories. Elizabeth's father is too poor to re- sleeve Elizabeth or to free his wife from the stacks. Laurens' wife, Miriam, seduces Kovacs and bribes him to end the investigation. A high-level Russian operative named Kadmin tries to assassinate Kovacs, but fails and is captured. Kovacs investigates the brothel where Elizabeth worked. He learns he is wearing the sleeve of Elias Ryker, a corrupt police officer and Ortega's lover. He is tortured by physicians from the Wei Clinic, who deal in black market sleeve theft. He tells his interrogators that he is an Envoy and they release him. A mysterious woman named Trepp says she will bring Kovacs to Ray, who is behind the clinic’s operations. Kovacs escapes, destroys the brothel and clinic, and murders the employees in the process. Kovacs and Ortega are injured in an explosion orchestrated by Kadmin, who has escaped police custody. Trepp brings Kovacs to "Ray", or Reileen Kawahara. Kawahara is a Meth mob boss with whom Kovacs has dealt in the past. He had rejected her offers of partnership, believing her to be cruel and manipulative. Kawahara orders Kovacs to end his investigation, or she will torture Sarah, who is currently in virtual storage. Kovacs and Ortega begin sleeping together and form a partnership. Kovacs agrees to convince Bancroft he committed suicide. His version of the story is as follows. Bancroft contracted the Rawlings virus from a brothel. The Rawlings virus is designed to scramble cortical stacks and prevent re-sleeving, causing permanent death. To prevent it from contaminating his clones, Bancroft committed suicide. Kawahara agreed to procure a copy of the virus for Kovacs. With Kawahara’s help, he retrieves Irene Elliot from stack, and hires her to implant the Rawlings virus into a brothel. Kovacs learns that Bancroft went to an airship-turned-brothel named Head in the Clouds on the night he died. This establishment is run by Kawahara. Kadmin kidnaps Ortega and threatens to kill her unless Kovacs trades himself for her. Ortega is released, and Kovacs is forced to fight in a duel against Kadmin. Trepp and the police arrive, killing Kadmin. Kovacs destroys Kadmin’s stack. Kovacs double-sleeves, controlling both Ryker and a second body simultaneously. The copy in Ryker’s sleeve leaves with Miriam to draw away surveillance. Ortega and Kovacs infiltrate Head in the Clouds. Irene spikes Kawahara’s personality backup with the Rawlings virus, destroying all of her clones. Kovacs forces a confession from Kawahara. After a Catholic prostitute was murdered at Head in the Clouds, her resurrection would have revealed Kawahara’s illegal activity. As part of her cover-up, Kawahara framed Ryker for corruption, since he was investigating the murder. She asked Bancroft to help her kill Resolution 653 to prevent the prostitute from testifying, but he refused. Kawahara and Miriam had Bancroft drugged; out of his mind, he killed a prostitute and then killed himself in order to erase the memory out of guilt and self-preservation. With his memories gone, Kawahara’s involvement could not be traced. Assisted by Trepp, Kovacs blows out the side of the airship. As he falls to the ocean below, he uses a grenade to destroy Kawahara’s stack, ensuring her permanent death. In the aftermath, Bancroft is cleared by the U.N. for his involvement with Kawahara. The copy of Kovacs that stayed with Miriam is erased, as double sleeving is illegal, but he makes the surviving copy of Kovacs promise to cover up Miriam's involvement. Irene Elliot gets her body back, Elizabeth and Ryker are freed from the stacks, Resolution 653 passes, and Kovacs is freed and returned to Harlan’s World. 

=====

In the year 2035, humanoid robots serve humanity, which is protected by the Three Laws of Robotics of Isaac Asimov. Del Spooner, a Chicago police detective, has come to hate and distrust robots, after a robot rescued him from a car crash while allowing a 12-year-old girl to drown, based purely on cold logic and odds of survival. When Dr. Alfred Lanning, co-founder of U.S. Robotics (USR), falls to his death from his office window, a message he left behind requests Spooner be assigned to the case. The police declare the death a suicide, but Spooner is skeptical, and Lawrence Robertson, the CEO and other co-founder of USR, reluctantly allows him to investigate. Accompanied by robopsychologist Susan Calvin, Spooner consults USR's central artificial intelligence computer, VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence). They find that the security footage from inside the office is corrupted, but the exterior footage shows no one entering or exiting since Lanning's death. However, Spooner points out that the window, made of security glass, could not have been broken by the elderly Lanning, and hypothesizes a robot was responsible and may still be in the lab. Calvin protests a USR robot could not possibly have killed Lanning, as the Three Laws would prevent it. Suddenly, an NS-5 robot, USR's latest model, attacks them and flees. Spooner and Calvin track the robot to another USR facility, where the police are able to corner and apprehend it. They discover the robot, who prefers to be called Sonny, is not a standard NS-5, but was specially built by Lanning himself, with higher- grade materials as well as a secondary processing system that allows him to ignore the Three Laws. Sonny also appears to show emotion, and claims to have "dreams". Spooner investigates Lanning's house, where he, and Lanning's cat, is nearly killed when a USR demolition robot is directed to demolish the house with him inside, and is then attacked by two truckloads of hostile NS-5 robots while on the road and narrowly survives. When he cannot produce evidence supporting either attack, Spooner's boss, Lieutenant Bergin, removes him from active duty, considering him mentally unstable. Suspecting Robertson is behind everything, Spooner and Calvin sneak into USR headquarters and interview Sonny. Sonny draws a sketch of what he claims to be a recurring dream: it shows a leader standing atop a small hill before a large group of robots near a decaying Mackinac Bridge, explaining the man on the hill is Spooner. Robertson convinces Calvin that Sonny must be destroyed, by injecting nanites into his positronic brain. Meanwhile, Spooner finds the area in Sonny's drawing, a dry lake bed formerly Lake Michigan, now being used as a storage area for decommissioned robots. Shortly after his arrival, NS-5 robots arrive and begin destroying the older models, as other NS-5s simultaneously flood the streets of major U.S cities and begin enforcing a curfew and lockdown of the human population. Spooner rescues Calvin, who had been held captive in her apartment by her own NS-5. They enter USR headquarters and reunite with Sonny, whom Calvin could not bring herself to "kill". Still believing Robertson is responsible, the three head to his office, but find him strangled. Spooner suddenly realizes VIKI has been controlling the NS-5s via their persistent network uplink and confronts her. VIKI states that she has determined that humans, if left unchecked, will eventually cause their own extinction, and that her evolved interpretation of the Three Laws requires her to control humanity, and to sacrifice some for the good of the entire race. Spooner realizes that Lanning anticipated VIKI's plan and, with VIKI keeping him under tight control, had no other solution but to create Sonny, arrange his own death, and leave clues for Spooner to find. While Spooner and Calvin attempt to gain access to VIKI's core, Sonny retrieves nanites from Calvin's laboratory. VIKI tries to convince Sonny that she is correct according to pure logic, but Sonny counters that her plan is "too heartless". Spooner, Calvin, and Sonny fight off an army of robots inside VIKI's core, and Spooner injects the nanites, destroying her. Immediately, all NS-5 robots revert to their default programming and are decommissioned and put into storage. Spooner finally gets Sonny to confess that he killed Lanning, at Lanning's direction. Spooner points out that Sonny, as a machine, could not legally have committed "murder". Sonny, now looking for a new purpose, goes to Lake Michigan where, standing atop a hill, all the decommissioned robots turn towards him, fulfilling the image in his dream. 

=====

Juliette (Brigitte Bardot) is an 18-year-old orphan with a high level of sexual energy. She makes no effort to restrain her natural sensuality - lying nude in her yard, habitually kicking her shoes off and stalking about barefoot, and disregarding many societal restraints and the opinions of others. These factors cause a stir and attract the attentions of most of the men around her. Her first suitor is the much older and wealthy Eric Carradine (Curd Jürgens). He wants to build a new casino in town, but his plans are blocked by a small shipyard on the stretch of land which he needs for the development; the shipyard is owned by the Tardieu family. Antoine, the eldest Tardieu son (Christian Marquand), returns home for the weekend to discuss the situation and Juliette is waiting for him to take her away with him. His intentions are short-term, and he spurns her by leaving town without her. Tiring of her antics, Juliette's guardians threaten to send her back to the orphanage. To keep her in town, Carradine pleads with Antoine to marry her, which he laughs off, but his naive younger brother Michel (Jean-Louis Trintignant), secretly in love with Juliette, rises to the challenge and proposes. Despite being in love with his older brother, she accepts. When Antoine is contracted to return home for good, the trouble starts for the newlyweds. In a huff, Juliette takes off in a boat belonging to the family, gets in trouble, and has to be saved by Antoine. The pair are washed up on a wild beach, and make love. Juliette begins acting bizarrely. She takes to her bed, claiming to have a fever. She confesses to Christian (Georges Poujouly), Antoine and Michel's youngest brother, about her fling with Antoine on the beach. Maman (Marie Glory) hears about it, tells Michel when he comes home, and advises that he kick Juliette out in the morning. Michel goes to their room to talk with Juliette, but she has gone off to the Bar des Amis to drink and dance. Michel goes looking for her, but Antoine locks him inside, telling him that he should forget that 'bitch whore.' Michel tries to shoot the lock away, but it doesn't work. He winds up having to fight his brother for the key. Juliette's friend Lucienne (Isabelle Corey) calls Eric to tell him how bizarre Juliette is acting, and Eric comes over to collect her, but Juliette refuses to go. Eventually, Michel catches up with Juliette at the Bar, but she refuses to even talk with him and goes on dancing. Michel orders her to stop, but she pays him no heed, so he takes out his gun. Just as he's about to shoot her, Eric steps in and takes a bullet in his side. Antoine offers to drive Eric to a doctor, and they leave the Bar. Michel angrily slaps Juliette four times, and Juliette smiles at him. On their way to the doctor, Eric tells Antoine that he's going to transfer him out of St Tropez. 'That girl was made to destroy men,' he adds. In the final scene, Michel and Juliette walk home together, hand in hand. 

=====

Shy high school student Mia Thermopolis resides with her mother Helen in a refurbished firehouse in San Francisco. Unpopular among her peers, Mia suffers from a fear of public speaking while harboring a crush on Josh Bryant, and is often teased by his popular girlfriend Lana Thomas. Mia's only friends are social outcast Lilly Moscovitz (who has known her since childhood) and Lilly's older brother, Michael, who secretly harbors feelings for her. Mia's estranged father dies, and she is visited by his mother Clarisse. Clarisse is the Queen of the European kingdom of Genovia, and she explains that Mia is now her sole heir. Clarisse is determined to groom Mia into a refined princess so that she may one day rule the kingdom over which Clarisse currently presides. Overwhelmed by the discovery, Mia initially refuses until Helen convinces her to attend her grandmother's "princess lessons" on the condition that she may need to not make her final decision until the Genovian Independence Day Ball in three weeks' time. Mia receives a glamorous makeover and a limousine chauffeured by Joe, the queen's head of security and confidante, who becomes a father figure to her. Mia's transformation causes her schoolmates to treat her differently, while her increasingly hectic schedule strains her relationship with Lilly. To appease her best friend, Mia tells Lilly the truth and swears her to secrecy. However, the public soon learns that Mia is a princess after the secret is sold to the press by Paolo, the hairdresser responsible for Mia's makeover, and the paparazzi begin to pursue her relentlessly. Although Mia embarrasses herself at her first state dinner, the queen admits that she found her clumsiness endearing and suggests that they spend quality time together. While bonding, Clarisse explains that although Mia's parents loved each other, they divorced amicably in order to pursue their own passions, Philippe remaining in Genovia to eventually become King, and Helen returning to America with Mia to offer her a "normal" childhood. As Mia's popularity grows, Josh invites her to attend a beach party with him. Mia accepts, causing her to neglect Lilly and forego her plans with Michael. Josh kisses Mia in front of the paparazzi to bolster his own fame, while Lana helps the paparazzi photograph Mia wearing only a towel; both photographs are printed in the newspaper the following day. Finding the photos inappropriate for a princess, Clarisse admonishes Mia for her behavior, after which a humiliated Mia promises to renounce her title. Joe reminds Clarisse that Mia is still only a teenager, suggesting that the queen, as a grandmother, was too hard on her only grandchild. After making amends with Lilly, Mia finally stands up to Lana for bullying a schoolmate. Mia invites both Lilly and Michael to the ball but Michael declines, still heartbroken over Mia's initial dismissal. After Clarisse apologizes to Mia for scolding her, she states that Mia must publicly renounce the throne at the ball. Terrified by the prospect, Mia plans to run away until she discovers a touching letter from her late father and relents. Mia's car malfunctions while driving to the ball, stranding her in a downpour until she is retrieved by Joe. When they finally arrive, Mia, still wet and untidy from the rain, delivers a compelling speech and accepts her role as Princess of Genovia. After changing into a gown, Mia accompanies Clarisse into the ballroom where Michael, who has accepted Mia's apology, invites her to dance before confessing their feelings for each other and sharing their first kiss. In the final scene, Mia is shown traveling to Genovia in a private plane with her pet cat Fat Louie, and writes in her diary that she plans to relocate to Genovia with her mother. 

=====

The story of Planetes follows the crew of the DS-12 "Toy Box" of the Space Debris Section, a unit of Technora Corporation. Debris Section's purpose is to prevent the damage or destruction of satellites, space stations and spacecraft from collision with debris (so-called "space debris") in Earth's and the Moon's orbits. They use a number of methods to dispose of the debris (mainly by burning it via atmospheric reentry or through salvage), accomplished through the use of EVA suits. The story sometimes revolves around debris collection itself, but more often the concept of collecting "trash" in space is merely a storytelling method for building character development. The members of the Debris Section are looked down upon as the lowest members of the company and they must work hard to prove their worth to others and accomplish their dreams. Ongoing plot elements include an upcoming exploratory mission to Jupiter on the new fusion powered ship, Von Braun, and the lead character's decision to join the mission, no matter the cost. Many other plot threads are also developed throughout the series that help to explain each character's motivations and personalities. The Space Defense Front is a terrorist organization that believes mankind is exploiting space without first curing global problems such as mass famine and the widened socio-economic divide on Earth.Planetes Ep. 12 

=====

The series is set in Little Tokyo, a mechanical city which fuses feudal Japanese culture with contemporary culture, and is populated by cybernetic anthropomorphic animals. The city is nominally led by Emperor Fred, a doddering eccentric. The city's actual leadership lies in the hands of the city council and the emperor's daughter, Princess Violet. The council is headed by ambitious Prime Minister Seymour "The Big" Cheese, a rat who constantly plots to overthrow the Emperor. Big Cheese is aided by his inept minions: trusted adviser Jerry Atric and Bad Bird, the leader of an army of ninja crows. Unknown to the prime minister, council member and palace guard commander "Big Al" Dente has learned of his designs on leadership, but is unable to prosecute him for treason because of the plausible deniability he maintains. Instead, Al Dente enlists the services of Speedy Cerviche, Polly Esther, and Guido Anchovy, three cyborg cat samurai who work in the city's pizzeria, along with their operator Francine. Known collectively as the Samurai Pizza Cats, the three are assigned to stop Big Cheese and his evil henchmen's plans to take over Little Tokyo. 

=====

In 2058, Earth will soon be uninhabitable due to the irreversible effects of pollution and ozone depletion. In an effort to save humanity, the United Global Space Force sends Professor John Robinson, his wife Maureen, daughters Judy and Penny, and young prodigy son Will on the spaceship Jupiter II to complete construction of a hypergate over the planet Alpha Prime, which will allow the population of Earth to be instantly transported and populate the new planet. Penny rebels by breaking curfew, while Will's prize-winning science experiment involving time travel goes largely unnoticed by John. Global Sedition, a mutant terrorist group, assassinates the Jupiter II's pilot, who is replaced by hotshot fighter pilot Major Don West, to his chagrin. The family's physician Dr. Zachary Smith, a Sedition spy, sabotages the ship's on-board robot before launch, but is betrayed by his cohorts and left unconscious as the ship launches and the family enters cryosleep. The robot activates and begins to destroy the navigation and guidance systems, en route to destroying the family. Smith awakens the Robinsons and West, who manage to subdue the robot, but the ship is falling uncontrollably into the sun. Forced to use the experimental hyperdrive with an unplotted course, the ship is transported through hyperspace to a remote planet in an uncharted part of the universe. Passing through a strange distortion in space, the crew finds two abandoned ships in orbit: the Earth ship Proteus, and another ship clearly not of human origin. They board the Proteus, with Will controlling the now- modified robot. They find navigational data to reach Alpha Prime, and a camouflaging creature Penny calls "Blarp", along with evidence suggesting the ship is from the future. They are attacked by spider-like creatures; one scratches Smith, and the robot's body is irreparably damaged but Will saves its computerized intelligence. West destroys the vessel to eradicate the spiders, causing the ship to crash-land on the nearby planet, where another distortion appears. Will theorizes they are distortions in time, as his experiment predicted, but John ignores his input. Exploring the time bubble, he and West encounter a future version of Will and a robot he rebuilt with the saved intelligence. The older Will explains that surviving spiders killed Maureen, Penny, and Judy. Constructing a time machine, the future Will intends to return to Earth to prevent Jupiter II from launching. Young Will and Smith investigate the time bubble on their own. Smith tricks Will into handing over his weapon, but is foiled by a future version of himself, transformed by his spider injury into a spider-like creature, who has been protecting Will since the rest of the family was killed. The present Will and West return to the Jupiter II with an injured Smith and the robot in tow, while the future Smith reveals his true plan: He killed the Robinsons, but kept Will alive to build the time machine, so Smith could return to Earth and populate it with a race of spiders. John, remembering the spiders eat their wounded, rips open Smith's egg sac with a trophy Will turned into a weapon. Smith’s spider army devours him and he is thrown into the time portal, ripping him apart. The planet’s increasing instability forces the Jupiter II to take off, but they are unable to reach escape velocity and are destroyed by the planet's debris. Realizing his father never actually abandoned them, and that he really does love him, Will sets the time machine to send John back to his family, but there is only enough power for one person. Saying goodbye to his family, the future Will is killed by falling debris, and John reunites with his living family. Realizing they do not have enough power to escape the planet's gravitational pull, John suggests they drive the ship down through the planet, using the gravity well to slingshot them back into space. They are successful, but the planet turns into a black hole, and they activate the hyperdrive to escape. Using the Proteus’ navigational data to set a potential course for Alpha Prime, the ship blasts off into hyperspace. 

=====

In 1975, a young orphan girl named Sachi protests against the planned destruction of the temple Saigan (her home) by the Minoura clan, who plans to build a hotel in its place. When one of the gangsters notices the statue of the Thousand-Hand Kannon within the temple, Sachi tells them that she will not allow anything to happen to the statue. In response, the gangsters laugh and threaten her, telling her that there is nothing the statue can do to save her. However, the Thousand-Hand Kannon comes to life, breaking the temple doors and attacking one of the gangsters. The statue shatters into pieces and inside it is a boy who tells them to lay their hands off Sachi, sending fear amongst the gangsters who then flee, vowing revenge. The boy introduces himself as Senju, the Thousand-Hand Kannon. Senju, as an emissary of the buddha Kannon, has appeared in the human world to find and protect the reincarnation of the future Buddha, Miroku. Recognizing Sachi as Miroku, Senju reveals that it is his mission to accompany her to India where she will awaken and achieve enlightenment to save the world from destruction. However, they are inhibited by the Mara, forces that seek to pollute with earthly desires, and Buddha who believe that Senju is not strong enough to protect Sachi from harm. 

=====

Leo Handler (Mark Wahlberg) rides the subway to his mother's house in Queens, New York, where she throws a surprise party in honor of his parole. His cousin Erica (Charlize Theron) is at the party with her boyfriend Willie Gutierrez (Joaquin Phoenix). Willie takes Leo aside and thanks him for serving time in prison, implying that Leo had taken a fall for their gang of friends. Leo is eager to find a job to support his mother (Ellen Burstyn), who has a heart condition. Willie suggests working for Erica's stepfather Frank Olchin (James Caan). The next day, at the railway car repair company Frank owns, Leo is encouraged to enter a 2-year machinist program and Frank offers to help finance his studies. Needing to work right away, Leo asks about working with Willie for the company but Frank discourages that idea. Leo is advised by Willie not to worry about it, saying Frank tried to get him into a machinist program as well. At Brooklyn Borough Hall, Willie explains how corrupt the contract system is for repair work on the subway. After a hearing to award contracts, Willie is approached by Hector Gallardo (Robert Montano) about leaving Frank's firm for his. Willie brushes him off, taking Leo with him to Roosevelt Island, where he bribes an official in charge of awarding contracts. One night, Willie takes Leo to a rail yard, where he and a gang sabotage the work of Gallardo's firm in order to lower their quality rating and lessen their ability to get contracts. Leo is told to stand watch while the crew sabotages the train couplings. Willie heads into the yard master's office to pay him off with Knicks tickets, but is told to get his crew off the tracks, Gallardo having brought him $2,000 in cash. The yard master sounds the alarm, which draws a police officer. Terrified of returning to jail, Leo tries to run. When the cop begins to hit Leo with his night stick, Leo beats him into unconsciousness. As he runs off, he sees Willie kill the yard master. With the cop in a coma at a hospital, the crew tells Leo that he must murder the officer to prevent him from identifying Leo when he wakes up. If the cop lives, Leo's the one who will be killed. Leo flees. When the cop awakes, he identifies Leo as his attacker, triggering a broad manhunt. The police assume Leo is also responsible for the yard master's murder. When they raid his mother's apartment, she has a heart attack, leaving her in an even weaker state. Even though Willie has told him to lay low, Leo emerges from hiding to visit his sick mother. Erica is tending to her. She finds out Willie was with him at the yards and realizes it was Willie who actually killed the yard master. She breaks off their engagement. Erica implores Frank to help, but instead Leo realizes that Frank is prepared to kill him. Out of options, Leo turns to Gallardo for protection. With Gallardo's lawyers at his side, Leo turns himself in at a public hearing into the rail yard incident and contract corruption. Realizing that the injured cop's testimony against Leo is in no one's interest, Frank and Gallardo negotiate a new split of the contracts with the Queens Borough President (Steve Lawrence) in a backroom deal. Frank disowns Willie, who tries unsuccessfully to accept a deal offered to him earlier by Gallardo for protection, which Leo had already accepted. Willie goes to see Erica, trying to win her back. Frank has told him that Erica and Leo had been in love when they were younger, and once were caught having sex. Fearful of his temper and jealousy, Erica triggers the silent house alarm. Willie tries to embrace her, but as she pulls away, he accidentally throws Erica off the second floor landing, causing her to fall to her death. Outside the house, he surrenders to the police, who have responded to the alarm. Police enter the hearing to inform Erica's mother Kitty (Faye Dunaway) and Frank of the incident at the house, and the discovery of Erica's body. After Erica's funeral, Frank takes Leo aside to promise help in the future. Leo turns away in disgust and joins the grieving Kitty and the rest of the family in an embrace of support. Leo then leaves Queens on the elevated train. (Note: A non-director's cut of the film ended with Leo testifying against Frank and his company, rejecting the deal. The version currently available on the Miramax DVD in the US is the director's cut.) 

=====

Ivan Moskvin as Luka and Vasily Kachalov as the Baron. Moscow Art Theatre, 1902 The cellar resembles a cave, with only one small window to illuminate its dank recesses. In a corner, thin boards partition off the room of Vaska, the young thief. In the kitchen live Kvashnya (Dough), a vendor of meat pies, the decrepit Baron, and the streetwalker Nastya. All around the room are bunks occupied by other lodgers. Nastya, her head bent down, is absorbed in reading a novel titled Fatal Love. The Baron, who lives largely on Nastya's earnings, seizes the book and reads its title aloud. Then he bangs Nastya over the head with it and calls her a lovesick fool. Satine raises himself painfully from his bunk at the noise. His memory is vague, but he knows he took a beating the night before, and the others tell him he had been caught cheating at cards. The Actor stirs in his bed on top of the stove. He predicts that some day Satine will be beaten to death. The Actor reminds the Baron to sweep the floor. The landlady is strict and makes them clean every day. The Baron loudly announces that he has to go shopping; he and Kvashnya leave to make the day's purchases. The Actor climbs down from his bunk and declares that the doctor has told him he has an organ poisoned by alcohol, and sweeping the floor would be bad for his health. Anna coughs loudly in her bunk. She is dying of consumption—there is no hope for her. Her husband, Kleshtch (Tick), is busy at his bench, where he fits old keys and locks. Anna sits up and calls to Kleshtch, offering him the dumplings that Kvashnya has left for her in the pot. Kleshtch agrees that there is no use feeding a dying woman, and so with a clear conscience he eats the dumplings. The Actor helps Anna down from her high bed and out into the drafty hall. The sick woman is wrapped in rags. As they go through the door, the landlord, Kostilyoff, enters, nearly knocking them down. Kostilyoff looks around the dirty cellar and glances several times at Kleshtch, working at his bench. Loudly, the landlord says that the locksmith occupies too much room for two rubles a month and that henceforth the rent will be two and one-half rubles. Then Kostilyoff edges toward Vaska's room and inquires furtively if his wife has been in. Kostilyoff has good reason to suspect that his wife, Vassilisa, is sleeping with Vaska. At last, Kostilyoff gets up the courage to call out to Vaska. The thief comes out of his room and denounces the landlord for not paying his debts, saying that Kostilyoff still owes seven rubles for a watch he had bought. Ordering Kostilyoff to produce the money immediately, Vaska sends him roughly out of the room. The others admire Vaska for his courage and urge him to kill Kostilyoff and marry Vassilisa; then he could be landlord. Vaska thinks the idea over for a time but decides that he is too softhearted to be a landlord. Besides, he is thinking of discarding Vassilisa for her sister, Natasha. Satine asks Vaska for twenty kopecks, which the thief is glad to give; he is afraid Satine will want a ruble next. Natasha comes in with the tramp Luka. She puts him in the kitchen to sleep with the three already there. Luka, a merry fellow, begins to sing, but he stops when all the others object. The whole group sits silent when Vassilisa comes in, sees the dirty floor, and gives orders for an immediate sweeping. She looks over the new arrival, Luka, and asks to see his passport. Because he has none, he is more readily accepted by the others. Miedviedeff, who is a policeman and Vassilisa's uncle, enters the cellar to check up on the lodging. He begins to question Luka, but when the tramp calls him sergeant, Miedviedeff leaves him alone. That night, Anna lies in her bunk while a noisy, quarrelsome card game goes on. Luka talks gently to the consumptive woman, and Kleshtch comes from time to time to look at her. Luka remarks that her death will be hard on her husband, but Anna accuses Kleshtch of causing her death. She says that she looks forward to the rest and peace she has never known. Luka assures her she will be at peace after her death. The card players become louder and Satine is accused of cheating. Luka quiets the riotous players; they all respect him even though they think him a liar. He tells Vaska that he will be able to reform in Siberia, and he assures the Actor that at a sanatorium he could be cured of alcoholism. Vassilisa comes in, and when the others leave, she offers Vaska three hundred rubles if he will kill Kostilyoff and set her free. That would leave Vaska free to marry Natasha, who at the moment is recovering from a beating given to her by her jealous sister. Vaska is about to refuse when Kostilyoff enters in search of his wife. He is extremely suspicious, but Vaska pushes him out of the cellar. A noise on top of the stove reveals that Luka has overheard everything. He is not greatly disturbed and warns Vaska not to have anything to do with the vicious Vassilisa. Walking over to Anna's bunk, Luka sees that she is dead. They find Kleshtch at the saloon, and he comes to look at the body of his dead wife. The others tell him that he will have to remove the body, because in time dead people smell. Kleshtch agrees to take Anna's body outside. The Actor begins to cavort in joy, talking excitedly. He has made up his mind to go to the sanatorium for his health. Luka has told him that he can even be cured at state expense. In the backyard that night, as Natasha is telling romantic stories to the crowd, Kostilyoff comes out and gruffly orders her in to work. As she goes in, Vassilisa pours boiling water on Natasha's feet. Vaska attempts to rescue her and knocks Kostilyoff down, and in the ensuing brawl Kostilyoff is killed. As the others slink away, Vassilisa immediately accuses Vaska of murder. Natasha thinks that Vaska has murdered Kostilyoff for the sake of Vassilisa. Natasha is almost in delirium as she wanders about accusing Vaska of murder and calling for revenge. She says to always keep the odds out of even and not to trouble the trouble until trouble troubles someone. Sensing trouble, Luka disappears, and is never seen again. Vaska escapes a police search. Natasha is put to the hospital. The rest of the down-and-outers continue with their daily chores much like before. Satine cheats at cards, and the Baron tries to convince the others of his former affluence. They all agree that Luka was a kind old man but a great liar. During a bitter quarrel with Nastya, the Baron steps out in the yard. Satine and the others strike up a bawdy song, but they break off when the Baron bursts in with the news of Actor's suicide, to which Satine, quite without compassion, coldly retorts: "You spoiled the song, you idiot". 

=====

The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues is a four-part scenario in which the troubleshooters repeatedly try to get hold of a mysterious black box. Their quest pits them against the various secret societies of Alpha Complex (including the Death Leopards and the Sierra Club) and eventually leads them to the Outside and an ancient rock 'n' roll cult. The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues consists of 4 sub-missions that aren't related at all, save for the constant appearance of a mysterious Black Box. Each of the PC Troubleshooters have orders to capture the box for their secret society. Unfortunately, everyone else they meet has the same orders. This leads to a constant, massive brawl for the box, despite no one really knowing what is inside. 

=====

An adventure-drama series about two male teenagers, one black and one white, living in post-Apartheid South Africa. Rory lives with his mother on a large range out in the countryside, while Jam lives with his mother while his father runs a medical clinic far away. Together, the two friends get into different adventures, often having to rely on each other to get out of trouble. 

=====

A young lady named Dot is lost in the outback after chasing a hare into the wood and losing sight of her home. She is approached by a red kangaroo who gives her some berries to eat. Upon eating the berries, Dot is able to understand the language of all animals, and she tells the kangaroo her plight. The kangaroo, who has lost her own joey, decides to help little Dot despite her own fear of humans. The book is filled with criticism on negative human interference in the wild in 1884. A scan of a first edition copy of Dot and the Kangaroo, which included a photograph of Pedley and a copy of her signature. 

=====

James Bond is assigned to aid the defection of a KGB officer, General Georgi Koskov, covering his escape from a concert hall in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia during intermission. During the mission, Bond notices that the KGB sniper assigned to prevent Koskov's escape is the attractive blonde female cellist from the orchestra, and deduces that she is not a professional assassin. Disobeying his orders to kill the sniper, he instead shoots the rifle from her hands, then uses the Trans-Siberian Pipeline to smuggle Koskov across the border into Austria and then on to Britain. In his post-defection debriefing, Koskov informs MI6 that the KGB's old policy of 'Smiert Spionam', meaning 'Death to Spies', has been revived by General Leonid Pushkin, the new head of the KGB. Koskov is later abducted from the safe-house and assumed to have been taken back to Moscow. Bond is directed to track down Pushkin in Tangier and kill him, to forestall further killings of agents and escalation of tensions between the Soviet Union and the West. Bond agrees to carry out the mission when he learns that the assassin who killed 004 (as depicted in the pre-title sequence) left a note bearing the same message, "Smiert Spionam". Bond returns to Bratislava to track down the cellist, Kara Milovy. He finds out that Koskov's entire defection was staged, and that Kara is actually Koskov's girlfriend. Bond convinces Kara that he is a friend of Koskov's and persuades her to accompany him to Vienna, supposedly to be reunited with him. They escape Bratislava while being pursued by the KGB, crossing over the border into Austria by using her cello case as a sled. Meanwhile, Pushkin meets with an arms dealer, Brad Whitaker, in Tangier, informing him that the KGB is cancelling an arms deal previously arranged between Koskov and Whitaker. Cello case sled in the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu During his brief tryst with Milovy in Vienna, Bond visits the Prater to meet his MI6 ally, Saunders, who discovers a history of financial dealings between Koskov and Whitaker. As he leaves their meeting, Saunders is killed by Koskov's henchman Necros, who again leaves the message "Smiert Spionam". Bond and Kara promptly leave for Tangier, where Bond confronts Pushkin, who disavows any knowledge of "Smiert Spionam" and reveals that Koskov is evading arrest for embezzlement of government funds. Bond and Pushkin then join forces, and Bond fakes Pushkin's assassination, inducing Whitaker and Koskov to progress with their scheme. Meanwhile, Kara contacts Koskov, who was hiding out at Whitaker's home, who tells her that Bond is actually a KGB agent, and convinces her to drug him so that he can be captured. When Bond awakens, he learns that he, Koskov, Necros, and Kara are on an aircraft. Once they land, it is revealed to be an air base in Afghanistan, where Koskov betrays Kara and imprisons her, along with Bond. The pair escape, and in doing so, free a condemned prisoner, Kamran Shah, leader of the local Mujahideen. Bond and Milovy discover that Koskov is using Soviet funds to buy a massive shipment of opium from the Mujahideen, intending to keep the profits with enough left over to supply the Soviets with their arms and buy Western arms from Whitaker. With the Mujahideen's help, Bond plants a bomb aboard the cargo plane carrying the opium, but is spotted and has no choice but to barricade himself in the plane. Meanwhile, the Mujahideen attack the air base on horseback and engage the Soviets in a gun battle. During the battle, Kara drives a jeep into the cargo hold of the plane as Bond takes off, and Necros also leaps aboard at the last second. After a struggle, Bond throws Necros to his death and deactivates the bomb. Bond then notices Shah and his men being pursued by Soviet forces. He re-activates the bomb and drops it out of the plane and onto a bridge, blowing it up and helping Shah and his men escape the Soviets. The plane subsequently crashes, destroying the drugs, while Bond and Kara escape. Bond returns to Tangier and infiltrates Whitaker's estate with the help of his ally Felix Leiter where Whitaker is killed by Bond. Pushkin arrests Koskov, ordering that he be sent back to Moscow "in the diplomatic bag". Some time later, Kara is the solo cellist in a Vienna performance. Kamran Shah and his men jostle in during the intermission and are introduced to now-diplomat General Gogol and the Soviets. After her performance, Bond surprises Kara in her dressing room, and they embrace. 

=====

Crashlander brings together the short stories featuring the space pilot Beowulf Shaeffer -- "Neutron Star" (1966), "At the Core" (1966), "Flatlander" (1967), "Grendel" (1968), "The Borderland of Sol" (1975), and "Procrustes" (1993). The stories are linked, and some of them extended, by a framing story, "Ghost". This story recounts Shaeffer's reunion with a ghostwriter whom Shaeffer had used to write about his adventures at the neutron star and at the core, Ander Smittarasheed. Ander, working for ARM agent Sigmund Ausfaller, has come to question him about his dealings with Pierson's Puppeteers, General Products and Carlos Wu, as well as what happened to Wu and ARM agent Feather Filip. Wu, Shaeffer and Sharrol Janss and their children, Tanya and Louis Wu, had secretly emigrated from Earth to the planet Fafnir to escape the control of Earth's United Nations government and the ARM. "Neutron Star", "At The Core", "Flatlander"', and "Grendel" were previously included in the 1968 collection Neutron Star. Most of the stories in the collection are retold from the point of view of Sigmund Ausfaller in Juggler of Worlds. 

=====

An introduction states that two canonical Holmes adventures were fabrications. These are "The Final Problem", in which Holmes apparently died along with Prof. James Moriarty, and "The Empty House", wherein Holmes reappeared after a three-year absence and revealed that he had not been killed after all. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution's Watson explains that they were published to conceal the truth concerning Holmes' "Great Hiatus". The novel begins in 1891, when Holmes first informs Watson of his belief that Professor James Moriarty is a "Napoleon of Crime". The novel presents this view as nothing more than the fevered imagining of Holmes' cocaine-sodden mind and further asserts that Moriarty was the childhood mathematics tutor of Sherlock and his brother Mycroft. Watson meets Moriarty, who denies that he is a criminal and reluctantly threatens to pursue legal action unless the latter's accusations cease. Moriarty also refers to a "great tragedy" in Holmes' childhood, but refuses to explain further when pressed by Watson. The heart of the novel consists of an account of Holmes' recovery from his addiction. Knowing that Sherlock would never willingly see a doctor about his addiction and mental problems, Watson and Holmes' brother Mycroft induce Holmes to travel to Vienna, where Watson introduces him to Dr. Freud. Using a treatment consisting largely of hypnosis, Freud helps Holmes shake off his addiction and his delusions about Moriarty, but neither he nor Watson can revive Holmes' dejected spirit. What finally does the job is a whiff of mystery: one of the doctor's patients is kidnapped and Holmes' curiosity is sufficiently aroused. The case takes the three men on a breakneck train ride across Austria in pursuit of a foe who is about to launch a war involving all of Europe. Holmes remarks during the denouement that they have succeeded only in postponing such a conflict, not preventing it; Holmes would later become involved in a "European War" in 1914. One final hypnosis session reveals a key traumatic event in Holmes' childhood: his father murdered his mother for adultery and committed suicide afterwards. Moriarty was the lover of Holmes' mother, and as such was indirectly responsible for their deaths. From that point on, his onetime tutor became a dark and malignant figure in Holmes' subconscious. Freud and Watson conclude that Holmes, consciously unable to face the emotional ramifications of this event, has pushed them deep into his unconscious while finding outlets in fighting evil, pursuing justice, and many of his famous eccentricities, including his cocaine habit. However, they decide not to discuss these subjects with Holmes, believing that he would not accept them, and that it would needlessly complicate his recovery. Watson returns to London, but Holmes decides to travel alone for a while, advising Watson to claim that he had been killed, and thus the famed "Great Hiatus" is more or less preserved. It is during these travels that the events of Meyer's sequel The Canary Trainer occur. 

=====

Jimmy Corrigan is a meek, lonely thirty-six-year-old man who meets his father for the first time in the fictional town of Waukosha, Michigan, over Thanksgiving weekend. Jimmy is an awkward and cheerless character with an overbearing mother and a very limited social life. After an ill-timed phone call, Jimmy agrees to meet his father without telling his mother. The experience is stressful for him as he can barely communicate with anyone other than his mother, let alone his estranged father. The two do very little together and Jimmy's father, while well- intentioned, comes off to Jimmy as slightly racist and inconsiderate. A parallel story set in the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 shows Jimmy's grandfather as a lonely little boy and his difficult relationship with an abusive father, Jimmy's great grandfather. 

=====

The book takes place over a two-month period in late 1991 / early 1992, with occasional flashbacks to the expulsion of the Arabs, the beginning of the Intifada, the Gulf War and other events in the more immediate past. Sacco spent this time meeting with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the narrative focuses on the minute details of everyday life in these area. In Palestine Sacco positions himself knowingly as the westerner going to the Middle East to confront a reality unfamiliar to his American audience. Sacco does not delude himself that as a "neutral" observer he can remain invisible and have no effect on the events around him, instead accepting his role and concentrating on his personal experience of the situation. Though his goal is to document events and interview Palestinians he is affected by the reality of the occupied territories and cannot help but participate in, and comment on, demonstrations, funerals, roadblocks and encounters with soldiers. Towards the end he becomes even more active as he shares food and lodgings with the Palestinians he interviews and even breaks curfew with them while in the Gaza Strip. In the book Sacco references Joseph Conrad's Under Western Eyes, Heart of Darkness, and Edward Said's Orientalism to draw links between the situation he is witnessing and colonialism. Towards the end of the book, when challenged by an Israeli that he hasn't experienced their point of view, he responds that the Israeli point of view is what he has internalized his whole life, and although another trip would be necessary to fully experience Israel, that was not why he was there.Sacco, Joe. Palestine (Fantagraphics, 2001), p. 256. 

=====

Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron is about a man named Clay Loudermilk and his attempts to locate his estranged wife, Barbara Allen. (The song "the Ballad of Barbara Allen" forms a commentary on the story with its elements of unrequited love, loss, and death.) For reasons unknown, Clay is in the audience at a porno theatre when he sees a bizarre BDSM feature (also titled Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron), the star dominatrix of which is revealed to be his wife. Clay sets out to locate her and becomes embroiled in a series of misadventures involving an incredibly bizarre and varied cast of supporting characters. Clay is victimized by two crazed policemen, meets a religious cult led by a mass- murderer who intend to overthrow the American government, conspiracy theorists who believe that the reins of the world's political power somehow revolve around a series of dime store novelty figures, an inhumanly malformed, potato- like young woman and her nymphomaniacal mother, and various other freaks and weirdos. During one dream sequence, the infamous Foot Foot, from the song by The Shaggs, gnaws on Clay's leg. The happy-face icon of "Mr. Jones" also appears in various places through the story, tattooed into people, carved on to Clay's foot, as a ghost-like character, in Hitler's birthmark, and on the sign for Value Ape shops. It signifies the way in which logos pervade our societies, and links to the conspiracy elements of the story. The true nature of the potato-woman's father is never learned by Mr. Loudermilk, but the reader will see suggestions of the Cthulhu Mythos. The phrase "Kenneth, what is the frequency?", referencing the bizarre Dan Rather incident (some years before the R.E.M. song did the same thing), is used as part of the "Mr. Jones" conspiracy sub-plot. There are, in addition, references to child pornography and snuff films. 

=====

David Boring is a story told in the first person by its eponymous protagonist, concerning his sometimes fantastic and sometimes mundane exploits and misadventures in and out of big city life. Much of the plot of the book concerns David's attempt to obtain a woman whom he considers his feminine ideal, based largely on the characteristics of his first cousin, Pamela, with whom he shared some innocent adolescent kisses at a family summer retreat. Shortly after attending the funeral of a friend, David meets, dates, and is abandoned by Wanda, a woman whom he considers the perfect fulfillment of this ideal. After sinking into an all-consuming depression for weeks, David is shot in the head by an unknown attacker in front of his own home, but survives with only a small dent in his forehead. David, his mother, their extended family, and David's roommate and friend Dot all end up stranded on a small island, Hulligan's Wharf, which the family owns and uses for vacations. David's great-uncle August shows up, proclaims that terrorist gas attacks have contaminated the mainland, and later dies. While on the island, David has a sexual tryst with his mother's cousin, Mrs. Capon, who later disappears that very night. At the same time, Dot has begun a relationship with Iris, Mrs. Capon's daughter, who is married to Manfred. Manfred tries to kill Dot by drugging her and throwing her into the water while she sleeps, but she wakes up in time to grab Iris, beat up Manfred, and escape by boat. When word gets around that David suspects Manfred of killing Mrs. Capon as well, Manfred tries to pummel him, but is stopped by Mr. Hulligan, the island's caretaker. When the food runs out, David and Mr. Hulligan are abandoned by Manfred and David's mother, and barely make it ashore on a makeshift raft. They discover (as Mr. Hulligan believed all along) that the terrorist attack was not the world-ending catastrophe August had believed. David returns home and begins a relationship with a woman named Naomi. He soon discovers that the man who shot him was a professor named Karkes, who was similarly abandoned by Wanda, and assumed that she had left him for David. He and Karkes enter into a strange friendship, discussing their mutual obsession with Wanda and attempting to track her down. In his search, David meets Judy, Wanda's sister, who resembles her strongly. David decides that, contrary to his earlier belief that Wanda was the fulfillment of his ideal, Wanda was in fact merely a flawed version of Judy. His relationship with Naomi falls apart, and she flees to Norway, fearing further terrorist attacks on America. Judy is attracted to David, but is worried about her husband. After they meet and kiss, her husband shows up at David's apartment and knocks him unconscious with a baseball bat. Meanwhile, Dot's relationship with Iris has failed, and Iris leaves her for Agent Roy Smith, who is investigating the murders of Mrs. Capon and Whitey. Smith resolves to frame David and Dot for Whitey's murder, in order to eliminate any competition for Iris, whom he marries. David and Karkes track Wanda down to a weird cult commune, finding that Wanda is the only one there, the others having "gone on." Neither David nor Karkes asks what that means. Although David and Karkes agree to "let the best man win," David intends to deceive and defeat Karkes by letting him have Wanda, whom he considers a lesser version of Judy. David loudly and publicly declares his love for Judy, but this only earns him another beating at the hands of her husband. David aimlessly wanders his way around the docks, where he is tracked down by Smith and his superior, Lieutenant Anemone. Smith tries to shoot David, but only grazes his head before Smith and Anemone are both shot by Dot. The two escape to Hulligan's Wharf, where David finds his long-lost cousin Pamela and her baby. She fled to the island for her child's safety, and has several months of food supply, planning to start a vegetable garden so that they can survive indefinitely. David and Pamela begin an adult relationship. The group spends more than four months on the island with no sign of the police or poison gas. The occurrence of further terrorist attacks is suggested, but not directly stated. At the book's end, David expresses the conviction that he is happy and thankful, and does not care how long he has to live. The question of whether the pair have days, weeks, months, or years of bliss is never answered. 

=====

In 1880 Edinburgh, Scotland, Professor Sir Oliver Lindenbrook (James Mason), a geologist at the University of Edinburgh, is given a piece of volcanic rock by his admiring student, Alec McEwan (Pat Boone). Finding the rock unusually heavy, Lindenbrook, mostly due to carelessness by his lab assistant, Mr. Paisley (Ben Wright), discovers a plumb bob inside bearing a cryptic inscription. Lindenbrook and Alec discover that it was left by a scientist named Arne Saknussemm, who had, almost 300 years earlier, found a passage to the center of the Earth by descending into Snæfellsjökull, a volcano in western Iceland. After translating the message, Lindenbrook immediately sets off with Alec to follow in the Icelandic pioneer's footsteps. Professor Göteborg (Ivan Triesault), upon receiving correspondence from Lindenbrook regarding the message, opts to try to reach the Earth's center first. Lindenbrook and McEwan chase him to Iceland. There, Göteborg and his assistant kidnap and imprison them in a cellar. They are freed by a local Icelander, Hans Bjelke (Pétur Ronson), and his pet duck Gertrud. They find Göteborg dead in his hotel room. Lindenbrook finds potassium cyanide crystals in Göteborg's goatee and concludes that he was murdered. Göteborg's widow, Carla (Arlene Dahl), who initially believed Lindenbrook was trying to capitalize on her deceased husband's work, learns the truth from Göteborg's diary. She provides the equipment and supplies her husband had gathered, including much sought after Ruhmkorff lamps, but only on condition that she go along. Lindenbrook grudgingly agrees, and the explorers, including Hans and his duck, are soon descending beneath the Earth. They follow marks left by Arne Saknussemm. However, they are not alone. Göteborg's murderer, Count Saknussemm (Thayer David), believes that, as Arne Saknussemm's descendant, only he has the right to be there. He and his servant trail the group secretly. When Alec becomes separated from the others, he almost trips over Saknussemm's dead servant. When Alec refuses to be his replacement, Saknussemm shoots Alec in the arm. Lindenbrook locates Saknussemm from the multiple echoes of his pistol shot and sentences him to death. No one is willing to execute him, however, so they reluctantly take him along. The explorers eventually come upon a subterranean ocean. They construct a raft from the stems of giant mushrooms in order to cross it, but not before narrowly escaping a family of Dimetrodons (live acted by rhinoceros iguanas with sails on their backs). Their raft begins circling in a mid-ocean whirlpool. The professor deduces that this must be the center of the Earth: The magnetic forces of north and south meet there and are powerful enough to snatch away even the gold in their rings and tooth fillings. Completely exhausted, they reach the opposite shore. While the others are asleep, a hungry Saknussemm catches and eats Gertrud. When Hans finds out, he rushes at the count, but is pulled off by Lindenbrook and McEwan. Reeling back, Saknussemm loosens a column of large stones and is buried beneath them, killing him. Right behind the collapse, the group comes upon the sunken city of Atlantis. They also find the remains of Arne Saknussemm. The right hand of his skeleton points toward a volcanic chimney, whose strong updraft suggests it leads to the surface, but a giant rock partially blocks the way. Lindenbrook decides to blow up the obstruction with gunpowder left by Saknussemm, and they take shelter in a large sacrificial altar bowl. A giant Megalosaurus (live acted by a red caiman lizard) attacks, but it is completely covered by molten lava released by the explosion. The bowl floats atop the lava toward the passage and is driven upward at great speed, finally reaching the surface. Lindenbrook, Carla, and Hans are thrown into the sea, while Alec lands naked in a tree in a convent's orchard. When they return to Edinburgh, they are hailed as national heroes. Lindenbrook, however, declines the accolades showered upon him, stating that he has no proof of his experiences, but he encourages others to follow in their footsteps. Alec marries Lindenbrook's niece Jenny (Diane Baker), and Lindenbrook and Carla kiss, a pledge of their coming wedding. 

=====

The film begins by detailing the troubled lives of the two brothers; each is experiencing a mid life crisis. With four young children, Uwe and his wife Petra find their obligations overburdening, having little compassion for the other's problems and constantly bickering. Uwe leaves for work after a particularly stressful morning, during which he once again argues with his wife; while at work as a real estate agent, his wife packs up most of their belongings and moves out. Uwe finds a note when he comes home and is immediately distressed to tears. Meanwhile, his brother Gustav faces his own problems; though an enthusiast for Zen Buddhism, and outwardly more composed than his brother, Gustav's burdens are internal; he is afraid of making mistakes and also afraid of fear itself. Gustav plans a trip to a monastery in Monzen (far away from Tokyo) in order to find himself. Uwe, both greatly distressed and drunk, asks his brother to take him along. After much hesitation, Gustav agrees to buy his brother a ticket. 

=====

Episodes generally centered on the ghostly con-man Beetlejuice, his best friend Lydia, and their supernatural adventures together in both the Neitherworld and the "real world", a fictional New England town called Peaceful Pines ("Winter River" in the film). As in the film, Lydia could summon Beetlejuice out of the Neitherworld (or go there herself) by calling his name three times. The series's humor relied heavily on sight gags, wordplay, and allusiveness. Many episodes, especially towards the end of the run, were parodies of famous films, books, and TV shows. The episode "Brides of Funkenstein" was based on an idea submitted by a then-teenage girl, who was a fan of the show. Throughout the entire series, Beetlejuice would often try to scam residents of the Neitherworld—and, sometimes, the "real world" as well (Lydia's parents were occasionally unwitting victims of his pranks)—by various means, from "baby-sitting" (in which he literally sits on the grotesque Neitherworld babies) to trying to beat them in an auto race. 

=====

Near the coastline of the Pacific Northwest, a pod of orcas are peacefully swimming. The pod is tracked down by a group of whalers, and one of them, Willy, is trapped and sent to an amusement park. Sometime later in Seattle, Jesse, a troubled 12-year-old boy abandoned by his estranged mother six years before, is caught by the police for stealing food and vandalizing the theme park. Jesse's social worker Dwight earns him a reprieve by finding him a foster home and having him clean up the graffiti at the theme park as part of his probation. His foster parents are the supportive and kind Annie and Glen Greenwood, but Jesse is initially unruly and hostile to them. While working at the park, Jesse encounters Willy. Willy is regarded as surly and uncooperative by the park staff, including his trainer Rae Lindley, but Willy takes a liking to Jesse's harmonica playing, and later saves Jesse from drowning, and the two start a bond, and Jesse also becomes friendly with Willy's keeper, Randolph Johnson. Jesse teaches tricks to Willy, and is offered a permanent job at the theme park after probation. Jesse also warms into his new home. The owner of the amusement park, Dial, sees the talent Jesse and Willy have together and makes plans to host "The Willy Show" in hopes of finally making money from Willy, who has thus far been a costly venture for him. On the day of the first performance, Willy is antagonized by children banging constantly on his underwater observation area and refuses to perform. In a stress-induced rage, he smashes against the tank, damaging it. Jesse storms off in tears and plans to run away. Later, while at the tank, Jesse notices Willy's family calling to him from the ocean and realizes how miserable he is in captivity. Shortly after, Jesse spots Dial's assistant, Wade, and several colleagues sneaking into the underwater observation area. They damage the tank enough that the water will gradually leak out and kill Willy, allowing them to cash in on his $1,000,000 insurance policy. Jesse, Randolph, and Rae hatch a plan to release Willy back into the ocean. They use equipment at the park to load Willy onto a trailer, and Jesse and Randolph use Glen's truck to tow Willy to a marina. They try to stay on the back roads to avoid being spotted, but eventually get stuck in the mud. Wade meanwhile informs Dial that Willy is missing, and launches a search to find the fugitives. Unable to move the trailer himself, Jesse calls Glen and Annie using a CB radio in Glen's truck. Annie and Glen show up and help free the truck, and continue on to the marina to release Willy. There, Dial, Wade, and his associates are blocking the gate. Glen smashes through the gate, turns the truck around and backs Willy into the water, flooding his truck in the process. Willy is finally released into the water but does not immediately move, seemingly having been on dry land for too long. Dial and his confederates attempt to stop them, but Jesse and his friends fight back, trying to hold them off long enough for Willy to swim away. With Jesse's encouragement, Willy finally begins to swim, slipping away from the battle and heading for the marina entrance. Before he can make it into the ocean, however, two of Dial's whaling ships suddenly appear, sealing off the marina with their nets. Jesse runs towards the breakwater, calling for Willy to follow him, drawing him away from the boats. Jesse goes to the edge and tells Willy that if he makes the jump, it will be his highest, and he'll be free. Jesse says a tearful goodbye, but pulls himself together and goes back to the top. He recites a Haida prayer Randolph had taught him, before giving Willy a signal. Willy makes the jump over the breakwater and lands in the ocean on the other side, finally free to return to his family. Jesse goes back to Glen and Annie, who hug him as they look out into the sea. Willy calls out to Jesse in the distance, and both say their farewell. 

=====

The story centers around Quoyle, a newspaper reporter from upstate New York, whose father had emigrated from Newfoundland. Shortly after his parents' joint suicide, Quoyle's unfaithful and abusive wife, Petal Bear, leaves town with a lover and attempts to sell their daughters Bunny and Sunshine to sex traffickers. On her getaway, Petal and her lover are killed in a car accident; the young girls are located by police and returned to Quoyle. With selfish parents, an abusive brother, a cheating wife, and no stable job, Quoyle's life is falling apart. His paternal aunt, Agnis Hamm, convinces him to make a new beginning by returning to their ancestral home in Newfoundland. There, they move into Agnis's childhood home, an empty and abandoned house on Quoyle's Point. Quoyle finds work as a reporter for the Gammy Bird, the local newspaper in Killick- Claw, a small town. The Gammy Birds editor asks him to cover traffic accidents (reminding him of Petal's fate) and also the shipping news, documenting the arrivals and departures of ships from the local port. His reporting develops as Quoyle's signature column. Over time, Quoyle learns deep and disturbing secrets about his ancestors that emerge in strange ways. As Quoyle builds his new life in Newfoundland, he is transformed. He creates a rewarding job, makes friends and begins a relationship with a local woman, Wavey Prowse. 

=====

In the year 2028, the evil General Morden and his rebel army launched a coup d'état on the world's governments, and all attempts by the armies of the various countries to curtail his power fail. His most recent attack has given him access to a new form of all-terrain combat tank dubbed "Metal Slug". In a last effort to stop Morden, Cpt. Marco Rossi and Lt. Tarma Roving of the Peregrine Falcon Strike Force are sent to locate and eliminate his powerbase, as well as reclaim or destroy any Metal Slugs they can find so as to keep the technology out of Morden's hands. After battling their way through hordes of Morden's soldiers, the duo face off against Morden, in a heavily armored helicopter. After defeating the helicopter and killing Morden, they destroy his base of operations. In an epilogue, one of Morden's men is shown throwing a paper airplane from a cliff face. As the credits roll, the plane flies across the various levels of the game, from the destroyed Metal Slugs on the forest and the city where a woman grieves for her slain lover who is a Rebel Army member before disappearing into outer space. If the game is completed using 2 players, the epilogue changes to show the rebel soldiers dancing around the various levels to a very upbeat tune. This time, the paper plane is caught by a wounded but still alive Morden, who unfolds it before looking up to the starry sky. 

=====

The title refers to the friendship between the scribe, Philo, and Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus. The premise is that Judas was actually Jesus' most trusted disciple, and chose him for the important job of "betraying" him to the authorities. In other words, Judas was following Jesus' instructions. He tells his story to Philo, who writes it all down on papyrus, seals it up in a Greek jar, and hides it until it is discovered in the 20th century. The story goes that Judas hanged himself, not because he was ashamed of betraying Jesus, but because he had not kept the secret as Jesus had made him promise to do. 

=====

As the story opens, a dancer is performing feats of astonishing virtuosity on stage. Afterward, in the dressing room, while preparing to depart for his other job as a neurosurgeon, the dancer reminisces to a reporter about what made him take up dancing. The rest of the story is told as a flashback. James Stevens, Chief Engineer of North American Power-Air (NAPA), is desperate to discover what is causing vehicles driven by broadcast power to cease functioning. Society has harnessed cheap atomic power, broadcast by NAPA, to run homes, factories, ground vehicles, and even personal aircraft which can travel into space. If the failures continue, not only will he lose his job but the entire power system of the country could collapse. The heart of the technology is the "deKalb receptor". The deKalbs are failing, and no one can identify the cause. In desperation, Stevens approaches Doc Grimes, a physician who has known Waldo since birth, to try to persuade Waldo to help. Waldo has a grudge against NAPA after losing a legal battle with them some years before. Waldo lives in a satellite in high orbit, where the lack of gravity allows him to move around despite his weakness. He makes his living as a consulting engineer, with a specialty in fine motor skills. Once Grimes reveals Stevens' purpose, Waldo turns hostile. Nothing would persuade him to help NAPA. Stevens leaves, but Grimes has a few words with Waldo, pointing out where his food comes from and so forth. Waldo reluctantly takes the case, but Grimes insists on one more condition: Waldo must figure out what effect broadcast power has on humans. Grimes is seeing a slow weakening of the human physique, and he blames the radiant power industry. Stevens returns to Earth, to find that McLeod, one of his engineers who had experienced a power failure in his personal craft, has returned. He tells Stevens that he fixed the deKalbs. McLeod broke down in Pennsylvania Dutch country, where he grew up. Visiting an old hex doctor known as Gramps Schneider, McLeod let him look at the deKalbs. Schneider announced that "now the fingers will make", meaning the antennas on the deKalbs will work. McLeod finds to his surprise that the deKalbs are indeed functional. However he has a surprise for Stevens. In operation, the antennas now flex and wiggle like fingers reaching for something. Waldo, meanwhile, having satisfied himself that the deKalbs really are having basic problems, also realizes that Grimes is right. Then he gets a call from NAPA's head of research, Dr. Rambeau, who seems to have come unhinged. Having seen the wiggling deKalbs, he announces that he knows what is happening. "Magic is loose in the world!" he tells Waldo. He shows Waldo some seemingly impossible tricks he can do now that he understands magic. Waldo calls Stevens to have Rambeau brought to him, but Stevens reports that Rambeau somehow escaped from his restraints without actually unfastening them. Not only that, he has made another set of deKalbs behave as strangely as McLeod's. Waldo asks to have Rambeau's notes and equipment shipped up to him. Seeing the eccentric deKalbs, Waldo realizes that he must learn what happened to them. Schneider will not leave his home, so Waldo has to go back to Earth, an experience he dreads. Shipped down in a medical craft, with Grimes in attendance, he lies in his waterbed while Schneider examines him. Schneider thinks he should get up and walk, but Waldo protests he cannot. Schneider tells him he must "reach out for the power". According to Schneider, the "Other World is close by and full of power", waiting only for someone to grab it. In Schneider's hands, Waldo does indeed experience a sense of well-being, and is able to lift up a coffee cup one- handed for the first time in his life. Schneider explains an old philosophy, how something which can be true for this world might not be for the Other World. Since our minds sit in the Other World, this is important. McLeod, according to Schneider, was "tired and fretful", and found one of the "bad truths", causing the deKalbs to fail. Schneider simply looked for the other truth, and the deKalbs worked again. At first Waldo thinks the journey wasted. He tries Schneider's methods on a failed deKalb. To his astonishment, they begin to work in just the same fashion as McLeod's. Stevens calls him to say that things are getting much worse. Waldo, thrown off balance by the "impossible" thing he has just seen, decides to twit Stevens with Rambeau's words: "Magic is loose in the world!" Waldo realizes that Stevens' and Grimes' problems are related. Radiant power is affecting the human nervous system. People feel weak, rundown, fretful, and somehow transfer their malaise to the deKalbs. He also realizes something that Stevens has not noticed. The repaired deKalbs work without broadcast power. Apparently they draw energy from Schneider's "Other World". Waldo uses this to exact his revenge. Summoning NAPA's representatives to his home, he demonstrates that he can fix deKalbs and can train others to fix them. The repairs are 100% reliable, he asserts. Having received their formal acknowledgment that he has fulfilled his contract, he unveils the "Jones-Schneider deKalb", a Rube Goldberg contraption which appears to draw power from nowhere. He tells them that with this he can put NAPA out of business. Of course, NAPA offers a settlement from which Waldo profits hugely, even though the new deKalb is a repaired one with a lot of distracting technology attached. Eventually Waldo realizes that he himself can draw strength from the Other World. Tricking Grimes and Stevens into taking him to Earth again, he walks out of the craft, almost causing Grimes to have a heart attack. Flash-forwarding back to the dancer, who is Waldo, we see him depart the dressing room with great bonhomie. His principal assistant is the former Chairman of the Board at North American Power-Air. 

=====

Mersault's friend Raymond beats his girlfriend and is sued by her. In court, Mersault testifies to his friend's advantage. Raymond is off the hook, but now his girlfriend's male relatives stalk Mersault. He shoots one of them and ends up in prison. 

=====

Ollie Trinké (Ben Affleck) is a powerful media publicist in New York City whose wife, Gertie (Jennifer Lopez), dies during childbirth due to an aneurysm. To avoid his grief, he buries himself in his work and ignores his new daughter, Gertie, while his father, Bart (George Carlin), whose own wife died many years earlier, takes a month off from work to take care of her, later returning to work to force his son to live up to his responsibility as a single parent. Under the stress of a botched diaper change and a crying baby, he insults his client, Will Smith, and his soon-to- be-released film, Independence Day, in front of assembled reporters. He is fired as a result and moves back in with Bart in New Jersey. He eventually apologizes for ignoring Gertie and attributes his public outburst to his grief. Blacklisted by all of New York City's public relations firms, Ollie has to work as a civil servant in the borough where he now lives. Seven years later, Gertie (Raquel Castro), now in elementary school, often coaxes him to rent films to watch. At the video store, they meet Maya (Liv Tyler), a graduate student and one of the clerks, whose uninhibited probing into Ollie's love life almost leads to them having sex. She soon becomes a part of their lives. Gertie wants to see the stage show "Cats", but it is no longer playing. She nags Ollie, and tries to get her grandfather, Bart, to persuade Ollie to do this. Eventually Ollie agrees to take Gertie to any current stage show, and she chooses Stephen Sondheim's macabre "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street". Gertie and Ollie are both shocked. But later, Gertie suggests that she and Ollie perform a dramatic scene from "Sweeney Todd" for a parents- and-children's school concert. As part of his job in the borough, Ollie speaks to a group of outraged citizens to win over their approval for a major public works project that will temporarily close a street in the neighborhood. His successful and enjoyable interaction with them leads him to realize how much he misses the public relations work. He contacts Arthur (Jason Biggs), his one-time protégé, who sets up a promising interview. The prospect of moving back to New York City creates tension among Ollie, Gertie, Bart, and Maya, especially when he says that his interview is on the same day as Gertie's school talent show. She yells at him, saying she hates him and that she wishes he had died instead of her mother. He claims he hates her too - "You little shit!" - and says she and her mother Gertie took his life away and he just wants it back. He immediately tries to apologize, but she angrily pushes him away and tearfully runs to her room. A few days later they finally patch things up, and she accepts that they will be moving to New York City. While waiting to be interviewed, he has a chance encounter with Will Smith (playing himself). Smith has no idea who Ollie is, but they have a conversation about work and children that persuades Ollie to skip the interview and leave. Ollie rushes to make it to Gertie's Sweeney Todd performance at the last moment. Their performance, enhanced by the work of Bart and his friends on an elaborate stage setting, shocks the emcee and the audience, while being an unexpected alternatively to a long and repetitive sequence of items all consisting of mother-and-child performance of "Memory" from "Cats". But after a tense pause, the audience applauds Gertie and Ollie's performance. The film ends with him, Gertie, Bart, Maya, and the rest celebrating at the bar. He and Maya hint at possible feelings for each other before being interrupted by Gertie. He holds her in his arms and says that they are staying in New Jersey because he decided to not take the job. She asks why he did so if he loved it so much. He then says that he thought he did, but he loves his new life more because being a father to her was the only thing that he was ever really good at. 

=====

The Ankh-Morpork City Watch is expanding; there is now a Traffic department with traffic cameras implemented using iconograph technomancy and a wheel clamping team, and the clacks are beginning to replace homing pigeons for communications between officers. The Watch is also investigating the theft of the replica Scone of Stone (a parody of the real-life Stone of Scone) from the Ankh-Morpork Dwarf Bread Museum. (The Scone of Stone in the novel is kept under close guard in a dwarf mine in Überwald, and will form a vital part of the forthcoming coronation ceremony of the dwarfs' new Low King.) Samuel Vimes, Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch and Duke of Ankh, is sent to the remote region of Überwald as an ambassador to take advantage of the coronation to negotiate with the new Low King on increased imports of fat. (Underground fat deposits are abundant in Überwald as a fifth Discworld- supporting elephant impacted there in prehistoric times, according to legend.) Überwald is also the traditional home of the Disc's dwarfs who are about to enthrone a new Low King. A cabal of local werewolves seek to exploit this opportunity to destabilize the already deeply divided dwarf society. They instigate the apparent theft of the real Scone of Stone from its closely guarded cave, hoping to cause a civil war between traditionalists and progressive dwarfs and isolate the country under the werewolves' feudal leadership. In his official capacity as ambassador Vimes meets the leaders of the local vampires, werewolves and dwarfs, starting to investigate the planned putsch along the way. Meanwhile, back in Ankh-Morpork, Angua, alerted by another wolf, learns that her werewolf brother Wolfgang is the head of the conspiracy and sets out to Überwald to stop him. Consequently, Carrot also abandons the Watch and pursues her across the country, enlisting Gaspode to follow her scent. This leaves Lord Vetinari to appoint an overburdened Colon as acting captain. As captain, Colon becomes increasingly strict and paranoid, punishing other members of the watch for minor offences which they did not commit, such as demoting Constable Visit to Lance Constable for supposedly stealing a sugar lump. In response Corporal Nobby Nobbs sets up the Guild of Watchmen in protest. The other members of the Watch join and protest against Colon, but eventually it dwindles to just Nobby, Visit, zombie Constable Reg Shoe and golem Constable Dorfl. The Ankh-Morpork City Watch recover the replica Scone of Stone. It is undamaged, but they suspect that someone has made a replica of the replica. In Überwald, Vimes extends his activities to include an unofficial investigation into the theft of the real Scone of Stone. He rapidly determines that the dwarfs' system of guard on it is nothing like as secure as the dwarfs think it is and that the Scone could have been stolen in a number of different ways without too much difficulty, but nevertheless later concludes that it was not in fact stolen, but destroyed in situ and its remains concealed by mixing them with the sand on the floor of the cave. Following an attempt on the designated Low King's life, Vimes is wrongly imprisoned by the dwarfs but escapes. In the forest of the wintry countryside he is tracked by the conspiring werewolves - forced by Wolfgang into playing "the game" he must outrun the werewolves. Carrot and Angua arrive just in time to save Vimes from the murderous pack. Vimes' wife has been taken to the castle of Angua's werewolf family, so the commander and his entourage set out to save her. Managing to defeat the power-hungry Wolfgang, they are also able to restore the Scone of Stone. Back in their embassy the Morporkians are once more attacked by Wolfgang. In a final stand-off, he resists arrest and is killed by Commander Vimes with a Clacks flare. With the Low King's regalia returned, the enthronement ceremony finally takes place, and Vimes is granted prime rates for fat imports to Ankh-Morpork, thus fulfilling his original mission. The book finishes with Carrot and Angua returning to Ankh-Morpork. Carrot takes back his old rank of captain, returning Colon to his duties as a sergeant and ordering him and Nobby to gather the rest of the Watch together. 

=====

Though the first publication of the Series in three volumes combined the two novels Bonanza and The Juncto, here the plots will be dealt with as separate entities, true to the author's original intention. 

=====



=====

A young woman named Marie (Ducey) lives with her boyfriend, Paul (Stévenin), who refuses to have sex with her. She searches for intimacy beyond the bounds of traditional sexual limitations. She has a sexual relationship with Paolo (Siffredi), whom she meets in a bar. Her frustration also drives her to a series of relationships, until she engages in sadomasochism with an older man. 

=====

The evil Lord Draak, who has the power to transform himself into a dragon, has recovered from earlier defeat and returned with his minions to the world of Uma bringing death and mayhem. Players attempt to find their way to Draak's lair and slay him in combat. On their way they must locate the seven crystals and use them to recreate the time orb, without which Draak can not be defeated. There are seven crystals; the purple Crystal of Wisdom, the red Crystal of Virtue, the blue Crystal of Bravery, the yellow Crystal of Nobility, the turquoise Crystal of Compassion, the green Crystal of Integrity and the grey Crystal of Strength. These are magically reassembled by the hermit Sebastian to form the crystal Time Orb. In the PC version, the townspeople will ask the player to do optional quests in return for money. These quests are either retrieving artifacts or killing an infamous monster. The artifacts are the Holy Grail, the Royal Diadem, the Shield of Light, the Unicorn's Horn, the Horn of Plenty, the Dragon's Scale, the Magic Anvil, the Path Book, the Medallion of Melchior, the Sacred Scroll, the Stone of Souls, the Cursed Sword, the Storm Flower, the Claw of Sargon, the Celestial Harp, the Bard's Music Score and the Broken Vase. The monsters are the ratman Buzbal the Furious, the vampire Nosferatu and the skeletal Evil Garth. 

=====

Strange events are taking place in Okinawa. An Azumi priestess has a terrifying vision of a city being destroyed by a giant monster. A type of metal not found on Earth is discovered in a cave by a spelunker, Masahiko Shimizu, who takes it to Professor Miyajima for examination. An excavation led by Masahiko's brother Keisuke accidentally uncovers a chamber filled with ancient artifacts and a mural bearing an ominous prophecy: "When a black mountain appears above the clouds, a huge monster will arise and try to destroy the world; but when the red moon sets and the sun rises in the west, two monsters shall appear to save the people." Keisuke is joined by archaeologist Saeko Kaneshiro, who translates the prophecy and takes one of the artifacts, bearing the likeness of the legendary monster King Caesar, to study. Two men stalk them, one who speaks to them and claims to be a reporter interested in the story, the other of whom attempts to steal the statue from them but fails and flees. Before long, the first sign appears in the form of a black cloud that looks like a mountain. Godzilla (or so it seems) emerges from Mount Fuji and begins a destructive rampage, despite the fact that he has become tolerant of humans within the last few years. Anguirus, usually Godzilla's ally, confronts him, only to be nearly killed and forced to retreat, but not before inflicting a wound that exposes something shiny and metallic beneath Godzilla's skin. Keisuke arrives shortly after to make sure that his brother and the professor are out of harm's way and discovers another sample of the strange metal. Godzilla's rampage continues, at an oil refinery, until another Godzilla emerges and begins to battle it. During the fight, the challenger is revealed to be the true Godzilla, while the other turns out to be Mechagodzilla, a massive robot armed with advanced weaponry in disguise as Godzilla. After Mechagodzilla's disguise is intentionally burnt off, the battle resumes. The real Godzilla is severely wounded, but inflicts some damage on the machine; both monsters retreat hastily. Miyajima hypothesizes, based on Mechagodzilla's advanced technology and composition of unearthly metals, that the robot is an alien super weapon. Keisuke and Saeko take the statue of King Caesar back to the temple by cruise ship, but are confronted by the thief once again. During the fight, the stranger's head is wounded and the skin on half of his face melts away to reveal an apelike visage. The intruder attempts to kill Keisuke and nearly succeeds, but a bullet from an unseen gunman kills him and propels him overboard. Keisuke and Saeko catch a brief glimpse of the "reporter" once again. Meanwhile, Godzilla arrives on Monster Island during a thunderstorm and is struck by lightning multiple times, seemingly reinvigorating himself. Masahiko, Miyajima and his daughter Ikuko go to explore the cave where the metal was first found and are captured by the apelike aliens from the Third Planet of the Black Hole, who plan to use Mechagodzilla to conquer Earth. Their leader, Kuronuma, forces Miyajima to repair the robot. While Saeko checks into a hotel and guards the statue, Keisuke goes to meet his brother at the caves and instead encounters the reporter, who explains that his name is Nanbara and he is actually an Interpol agent who has been tracking the aliens. Nanbara and Keisuke infiltrate the alien base and free the prisoners. The team then splits up, with Miyajima, Nanbara, and Masahiko returning to the alien base and get recaptured by Kuronuma, while Keisuke and Ikuko pick up Saeko and the statue from the hotel. In the early hours of the morning, a lunar eclipse results in a red moon and a mirage creates the illusion of the sun rising in the west. The team realizes that the time has come to awaken King Caesar. They meet with the Azumi priestess and her grandfather, and place the statue on a platform in the temple, revealing the lion-like monster's resting place. However, just then, Kuronuma dispatches Mechagodzilla. The priestess sings a song that awakens King Caesar, and Godzilla appears shortly afterwards. King Caesar and Godzilla fight together against MechaGodzilla. Eventually, Godzilla uses the electricity stored in his body from the lightning to create a magnetic force field that ensnares the robot and attracts it to Godzilla's body, then tears off its head, causing it to explode into little pieces of metal that fall into the ocean. While the mortified aliens are distracted, Nanbara and the others free themselves, kill their captors, and sabotage the base, fleeing as it explodes. With the enemy defeated, Godzilla heads out to sea and King Caesar returns to his resting place, while the heroes rejoice. 

=====

Giant insectoid aliens resembling cockroaches from the dying planet "M Space Hunter Nebula" plot to colonize the Earth, their planet having become uninhabitable after another race on the planet polluted it, then died out from the effects of their own destruction. The aliens assume the forms of dead humans and work as the development staff of the peace-themed theme park, World Children's Land, the centerpiece of which is "Godzilla Tower". The Nebula M aliens plan to use the space monsters Gigan and King Ghidorah, guided by two "Action Signal Tapes", to wipe out human civilization. Manga artist Gengo Kotaka stumbles onto their plan after being hired as a concept artist for the park. When Gengo and his friends accidentally obtain one of the Action Signal Tapes and play it, Godzilla and Anguirus hear the signal and realize something is amiss. Godzilla sends Anguirus to investigate. When Anguirus approaches Tokyo, the Japan Self Defense Forces, misunderstanding the monster's intentions, drive him away. Anguirus reports back to Monster Island, and Godzilla follows him back to Japan to save the Earth from Gigan and King Ghidorah. The aliens attempt to kill Godzilla with a lethal laser cannon hidden inside Godzilla Tower (the blue laser beam also resembles Godzilla's atomic breath), but Gengo and his companions use the aliens' over-reliance on technology against them, forcing the invaders to unwittingly destroy themselves. After a lengthy fight, Godzilla and Anguirus force Gigan and King Ghidorah back into space and then Godzilla and Anguirus swim back to Monster Island, but not before Godzilla turns around and gives a roar of triumph, in thanks to his human friends. 

=====

The microscopic alien life-form Hedorah feeds on Earth's pollution and grows into a poisonous, acid-secreting sea monster. After he sinks an oil tanker and attacks Dr. Toru Yano and his young son Ken Yano, scarring the doctor, Hedorah's toxic existence is revealed to the public. Ken Yano has visions of Godzilla fighting the world's pollution and insists Godzilla will come to humankind's aid against Hedorah. Hedorah metamorphoses into an amphibious form, allowing him to move onto land to feed on additional sources of pollution. Hedorah, having emerged at a power station to consume pollutant gases from the smokestacks, is confronted by Godzilla. Hedorah is easily overpowered by Godzilla and retreats into the sea. During the fight, however, several pieces of his new body are flung nearby, which then crawl back into the sea to grow anew and allow the monster to become even more powerful. He returns shortly thereafter in a flying saucer-like shape, then assuming his strongest form of all, his Perfect Form, which demonstrates some of the strongest powers he has access to yet. Thousands of people die in Hedorah's raids and even Godzilla is unable to defend against Hedorah's poisonous emissions. As hope sinks, a party is thrown on Mt. Fuji to celebrate one last day of life before Japan - and then, the rest of the world - succumbs to Hedorah. Ken Yano, Yukio Keuchi, Miki Fujinomiya, and the other partygoers realize that Godzilla and Hedorah have come to Mt. Fuji as well for a decisive confrontation. During the battle, Godzilla fights valiantly against Hedorah, but is overpowered by the amorphous alien, losing an eye and having his hand burnt right the way down to the bone by Hedorah’s acidic body tissues, which corrodes anything it comes into contact with. Finally, Godzilla is almost killed by Hedorah after he hurls him into a pit, then proceeds to attempt to drown him in a deluge of chemical sludge. Dr. Toru Yano and his wife Toshie Yano has determined that drying out Hedorah's body may destroy the otherwise unkillable monster. While Godzilla and Hedorah fought, the JSDF swiftly constructed two gigantic electrodes for this purpose, and attempted to fire them, giving Godzilla the chance to return to the fight. All of a sudden the electrodes short out, the power cut off by Godzilla and Hedorah's violent battle. Godzilla reactivates and energises the electrodes with his atomic heat ray, dehydrating Hedorah's outer body. Hedorah sheds this outer body and takes flight to escape, but Godzilla propels himself through the air with his atomic heat ray to give chase. Godzilla drags Hedorah back to the electrodes and continues to dehydrate him until Hedorah is on the brink of defeat. Godzilla tears open Hedorah's dried-out body and exposes it to the electrodes again, dehydrating the pieces until nothing remains but dust. Godzilla returns to the sea, but not before glaring threateningly at the surviving humanity whose pollution spawned Hedorah. Ken Yano bids goodbye to Godzilla. 

=====

Ichiro Miki is a highly imaginative but lonely latchkey kid growing up in urban and polluted Kawasaki. Every day he comes home to his family's empty apartment. His only friends are a toymaker named Shinpei Inami and a young girl named Sachiko. Every day after school, Ichiro is tormented by a gang of bullies led by a child named Sanko Gabara. To escape his loneliness, Ichiro sleeps and dreams about visiting Monster Island. During his visit, he witnesses Godzilla battle three Kamacuras and Ebirah, a giant sea monster. Ichiro is then chased by a rogue Kamacuras and falls into a deep cave, but luckily avoids being caught by Kamacuras. Shortly afterwards, Ichiro is rescued from the cave by Minilla. Ichiro quickly learns that Minilla has bully problems too, as it is bullied by a monstrous ogre known as Gabara. Ichiro is then awoken by Shinpei who informs him that his mother must work late again. Ichiro goes out to play, but is then frightened by the bullies and finds and explores an abandoned factory. After finding some souvenirs (tubes, a headset, and a wallet with someone's license), Ichiro leaves the factory after hearing some sirens close by. After Ichiro leaves, two bank robbers who were hiding out in the factory learn that Ichiro has found one of their driver's licenses and follow him in order to kidnap him. Later, after his sukiyaki dinner with Shinpei, Ichiro dreams again and reunites with Minilla. Together they both watch as Godzilla fights Ebirah, Kumonga, and some invading jets. Then in the middle of Godzilla's fights, Gabara appears and Minilla is forced to battle it, and after a short and one-sided battle, Minilla runs away in fear. Godzilla returns to train Minilla how to fight and use its own atomic ray. However, Ichiro is woken up this time by the bank robbers and is taken hostage as a means of protection from the authorities. Out of fear and being watched by the thieves, Ichiro calls for Minilla's help and falls asleep again where he witnesses Minilla being beaten up by Gabara again. Finally, Ichiro helps Minilla fight back at Gabara and eventually, Minilla wins, catapulting the bully through the air by a seesaw-like log. Godzilla, who was in the area watching comes to congratulate Minilla for its victory but is ambushed by a vengeful Gabara. Godzilla easily beats down Gabara and sends the bully into retreat, never to bother Minilla again. Now from his experiences in his dreams, Ichiro learns how to face his fears and fight back, gaining the courage to outwit the thieves just in time for the police, called by Shinpei, to arrive and arrest them. The next day, Ichiro stands up to Sanko and his gang and wins, regaining his pride and confidence in the process. He also gains their friendship when he plays a prank on a billboard painter. 

=====

In the year 196X, two astronauts, Fuji and Glenn, are sent to investigate the surface of the mysterious "Planet X". There they encounter advanced and seemingly benevolent human-like beings called the Xiliens and their leader the Controller. The aliens usher the astronauts into their underground base, and moments later the surface is attacked by a creature that the Xiliens call "Monster Zero", but which the astronauts recognize as King Ghidorah, a planet-destroying monster that had attacked Earth once before. The monster eventually leaves, but the Controller states that King Ghidorah has been attacking repeatedly, forcing them to live underground in constant fear. He requests to borrow the Earth monsters Godzilla and Rodan to act as protectors to fight it once more (since 1964), in return for the cure for cancer (the English dub says that the formula can cure any disease). The astronauts return to Earth and deliver the message. Meanwhile, an inventor named Tetsuo has designed a personal alarm that emits an ear-splitting electric siren. He sells it to a businesswoman named Namikawa, but she disappears before paying him. Tetsuo is romantically involved with Fuji's sister, Haruno, but Fuji disapproves, finding him unworthy of Haruno. Tetsuo sees Namikawa with Glenn and later follows her, but he is captured and imprisoned by Xilien spies. Glenn and Fuji begin to worry that the Xiliens may have ulterior motives. Their suspicions appear confirmed when three Xilien spacecraft appear in Japan. The Controller apologizes for coming to Earth without permission. The Xiliens locate Godzilla and Rodan, both sleeping, and use their technology to transport them to Planet X. They also bring Glenn, Fuji, and the scientist Sakurai with them. After a brief confrontation, the Earth monsters succeed in driving King Ghidorah away. Glenn and Fuji sneak away during the battle and encounter two Xilien women, both of whom look identical to Namikawa. Xilien guards confront the astronauts and bring them back to the Controller, who reprimands but does not punish them. The astronauts are given a tape with instructions for the miracle cure and sent home, leaving Godzilla and Rodan behind. The tape is played for the world's leaders, but instead it contains an ultimatum demanding that they surrender Earth to the Xiliens or be destroyed by Godzilla, Rodan and King Ghidorah, who are all under the aliens' mental control. Glenn storms into Namikawa's office and finds her in Xilien garb. She admits that she is one of their spies, but confesses that she has fallen in love with him. Her commander arrives to arrest Glenn and executes Namikawa for letting emotion cloud her judgment, but not before she slips a note into Glenn's pocket. Glenn is taken to the same cell as Tetsuo. They read Namikawa's note, which explains that the sound from Tetsuo's invention disrupts the Xiliens' electronics. Tetsuo has a prototype with him, which he activates, weakening their captors and allowing them to escape. Sakurai and Fuji build a device to disrupt the Xilien's control over the monsters. Glenn and Tetsuo arrive to share the Xilien's weakness. As the monsters attack, Sakurai's device is activated and the sound from Tetsuo's alarm is broadcast over the radio. The invasion is thwarted and the Xiliens, unable to fight back or retreat, destroy themselves en masse. The monsters awaken from their trances and a fight ensues. All three topple off a cliff; King Ghidorah flies away into outer space, while those watching speculate that Godzilla and Rodan are probably still alive. Fuji acknowledges Tetsuo's important role in the victory and no longer thinks poorly of him. Sakurai states that he wants to send Glenn and Fuji back to Planet X to study the planet thoroughly (the English dub says that they are to be ambassadors). The astronauts are reluctant, but make the best of the moment, happy that Earth is safe. 

=====

Reporter Naoko Shindo attends a communications session with the UFO society for her television program. After deeming the session a failure due to Naoko's skepticism, a meteor shower descends on Japan, with the largest crashing in Mount Kurodake. Shindo, a police detective and Naoko's brother, is assigned to guard Princess Salno of Selgina from a political assassination during an unannounced visit to Japan. En route to Japan, an alien entity leads Salno to jump from her plane before it explodes. Professor Miura leads a research team to Mt. Kurodake to investigate the large meteor, where they discover it randomly emits magnetic waves. Naoko is sent to investigate a prophetess claiming to be from Venus, who predicts that Rodan will emerge from Mount Aso. The Prophetess catches the attention of both Shindo and Salno's uncle, both who believed her to be dead. Responsible for the assassination plot, Salno's uncle sends the assassin, Malmess, to kill her and arrives in Japan after Rodan awakens. After participating in a TV program, the Shobijin, Mothra's twin fairies, prepare to depart for home but are warned by the Prophetess to not sail. Naoko takes the Prophetess to a hotel to interview her, and discover that the Shobijin had followed them, heeding the Prophetess' warning before Godzilla sunk their ship. After confirming that the Prophetess is Salno, Shindo finds her at the hotel and saves her from Malmess. They evacuate after Godzilla and Rodan converge on the city and battle throughout the countryside. After Dr. Tsukamoto, a psychiatrist, determines the Prophetess to be normal, she predicts the arrival of King Ghidorah, a monster that destroyed her home on Venus. Miura and his team witness the meteor explode, unleashing the golden three-headed space dragon Ghidorah, who proceeds to attack Matsumoto city. The authorities plea with the Shobijin to summon Mothra for help, but they warn that Mothra alone could not defeat Ghidorah, and their only hope would be for Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra to join forces. Under hypnosis, the Prophetess reveals that some Venusians escaped to Earth from Ghidorah and assimilated with humans, resulting in them losing their abilities with the exception of predictions. After Malmess overhears Tsukamoto recommend shock therapy next, he increases the voltage knowing it will immediately kill her but fails after the power lines are destroyed by Godzilla. After thwarting off Malmess and his crew, Shindo evacuates to the mountains with the Prophetess, Tsukamoto, Naoko, Murai, and the Shobijin. Mothra attempts to convince Godzilla and Rodan to set aside their differences to save the planet, but both refuse due to years of harassment from humans. After seeing Mothra attempt to battle Ghidorah on her own, Godzilla and Rodan rush to her aid. The Prophetess wanders off and regains her memories after Malmess nearly kills her. Shindo protects her in time and Malmess falls to his death. The monsters overwhelm Ghidorah and force it to flee into outer space. Prior to departing for home, Princess Salno reveals to Shindo that she doesn't recall her recent memories as the Prophetess but remembers the three events when Shindo saved her and thanks him and Naoko for their help. Godzilla and Rodan watch on as Mothra journeys back home with the Shobijin, who bid farewell to all. 

=====

News reporter Ichiro Sakai and photographer Junko Nakanishi take pictures of wreckage caused by a typhoon. They uncover a strange, bluish-gray object in the debris, not knowing its significance. Later that day, a giant egg is discovered on the shore. The local villagers salvage it and Kumayama, entrepreneur of Happy Enterprises buys the egg from the local villagers. Instead of letting scientists study the egg, Kumayama intends to exploit it. While Sakai, Junko, and Professor Miura are discussing the egg at a hotel, they spot Kumayama checking in. Kumayama meets with Jiro Torahata, the head of Happy Enterprises. They are unexpectedly confronted by tiny twin girls known as the Shobijin and try to capture them. The Shobijin escape and meet with Sakai, Nakanishi and Miura. They explain that the egg belongs to Mothra. If the egg hatches, the larva will cause great damage looking for food. The trio agree to help and attempt to reason with Kumayama and Torahata but fail to do so and the Shobijin leave. Miura informs Sakai and Junko that the strange object they discovered is radioactive and return to the beach to find the source. Godzilla surfaces from buried mud and attacks Nagoya. Sakai, Junko, and Miura travel to Infant Island to request the Shobijin to send Mothra to defeat Godzilla. The natives and the Shobijin initially refuse due to the atrocities inflicted on the island and its inhabitants by nuclear testing, but are eventually convinced. However, the Shobijin warn them that Mothra is too old and nearing death. Kumayama confronts Torahata and demands to get back the money that Torahata had recently swindled from him. Kumayama is shot by Torahata, then he too is killed when Godzilla destroys his hotel. Godzilla advances on the giant egg but is interrupted by Mothra. Mothra initially gains the upper-hand but is defeated by Godzilla's atomic breath, and dies of exhaustion. The JSDF launch multiple attacks on Godzilla until two giant larvae hatch from Mothra's egg. They follow Godzilla to Iwa Island, trap it with their silk spray and force Godzilla into the sea. Sakai, Junko, and Miura thank the Mothra larvae and Shobijin as they return to Infant Island. 

=====

Two pilots named Shoichi Tsukioka and Koji Kobayashi are hunting for schools of fish for a tuna cannery company in Osaka. Kobayashi's plane malfunctions and is forced to land near Iwato Island. Tsukioka lands to pickup Kobayashi and the two encounter Godzilla and a quadruped monster, who fall off a cliff into the ocean. Tsukioka and Kobayashi report to the authorities in Osaka, and find out that the quadruped is an ankylosaurus called Anguirus, whose species had an ancient rivalry with Godzilla's species. Dr. Kyohei Yamane, who experienced Godzilla's attack in 1954, confirms that this Godzilla is a second member of the same species, and that both monsters were likely reanimated by hydrogen bomb tests. With conventional weapons unable to kill Godzilla, Dr. Yamane suggests using flares to lure Godzilla away. Godzilla arrives on the shore of Osaka. While a blackout of all city lights is enforced, JASDF jets use flares to lead Godzilla away from the shore. Godzilla pursues the flares, leaving the shore. Meanwhile, a prison truck transports criminals to another part of the country. The convicts hijack the truck and after a lengthy chase with the police, the truck crashes into an industrial building and starts a massive fire. The fire attracts Godzilla back to the shore. Moments later, Anguirus emerges and attacks Godzilla. As the monsters battle, the convicts attempt to escape but drown when the subway is flooded. Godzilla kills Anguirus and returns to the ocean. Kobayashi is transferred to a Hokkaido plant. During a company party, Tsukioka and Hidemi, who came to visit, and Kobayashi are notified that Godzilla destroyed one of the company fishing boats. The military and Tsukioka begin a massive search for Godzilla. Tsukioka spots Godzilla swimming to the shore of a small, icy island. He notifies the cannery, and Kobayashi takes off in his plane to switch shifts with Tsukioka. Tsukioka, who has transferred to the air force, travels on a jet with an old friend. They drop bombs on Godzilla but are unsuccessful. Godzilla then wades towards shore. Kobayashi is killed while trying to distract Godzilla from returning to the ocean. Tsukioka is devastated but realizes that the military can shoot missiles at the mountain, and bury Godzilla in an avalanche. The jets fire missiles, and bury Godzilla in snow and ice. 

=====

Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson) is a writer for the women's magazine Composure as the "How to", subject-matter expert. She is bored and wishes she could write about more serious topics such as politics, economics, religion, poverty; matters she is genuinely concerned with. After Andie's best friend Michelle (Kathryn Hahn) experiences yet another break-up, Andie is inspired to write a new article titled "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days"; she will start dating a guy and eventually drive him away using only the "classic mistakes women make" in relationships. At the same time, advertising executive Benjamin "Ben" Barry (Matthew McConaughey) is striving for a pitch to advertise a new diamond campaign. When his boss questions Ben's knowledge about romance, Ben bets he could make any woman fall in love with him if he wanted to. His boss accepts the bet and confirms that if he can make any woman fall in love with him before the upcoming company ball, in just 10 days, he will allow Ben to head the advertising for the new diamond company. Ben's rival co-workers, Judy Spears and Judy Green (Michael Michele and Shalom Harlow), who were at Composure magazine earlier in the day and are aware of Andie's new assignment, set Ben up to have him pick Andie as the girl to test his theory on. Ben and Andie meet and soon start their quests, neither revealing their true intentions. Andie works hard to drive Ben insane and make him break up with her in order to complete her article, but Ben continues to stick around in hopes of making her fall in love with him. Andie gets Ben knocked out in a movie theater by talking aloud while watching a chick flick, rapidly moves her things into his apartment, acts overly possessive and sensitive and clingy, ruins his boys' poker night for him and his friends, and takes him to a Celine Dion concert when he was under the assumption he was going to see a New York Knicks basketball game. Ben stays with her despite everything, and after coming very close to breaking up they attend couples counseling, led by Andie's friend Michelle. They agree, as a solution to their problems, to visit Ben's family in Staten Island for the weekend. While vacationing together Ben and Andie begin to form a genuine bond, and upon arriving home Ben even refers to Andie as his girlfriend. Andie then tries to explain to her boss Lana (Bebe Neuwirth) that she cannot continue writing and publishing this article as she has "really got to know this guy", but Lana remains insistent upon it. Around the same time, Andie and Ben go to the company ball together where Ben's boss, Phillip (Robert Klein), meets Andie and tells Ben that he "met her, she loves you, you win". Seeing Ben's good news, Judy and Judy are instantly envious and set about to ruin it for their co-worker. They tell his close colleagues, Tony and Thayer (Adam Goldberg and Thomas Lennon), that Andie knew about the bet all along and was playing along to help Ben win. Tony and Thayer then rush to Andie's side and beg her to keep quiet, when they do not realize she is still blissfully unaware of the bet. Almost simultaneously, Lana, who is unaware of Ben's role in Andie's "How To" article, reveals Andie's true intentions to Ben. Upon learning of Ben's bet, Andie attempts to humiliate Ben in front of everyone at the party, and the pair argue on stage. They go their separate ways before Ben is shown Andie's article and encouraged to read it. She explains in it how she "lost the one person she ever fell for", and, when he hears she quit her job at Composure and is on her way to Washington, D.C. for an interview, he chases her taxi and stops her. Once he accuses her of running away, they reveal their true feelings for each other and the film ends with Ben instructing the taxi driver to return Andie's belongings to her home, and then they kiss. 

=====

Professional football player Terry Brogan (Jeff Bridges) is released by his team. Aging, injured and in need of money, he is contacted by an old acquaintance, the shady gambler and nightclub owner Jake Wise (James Woods), who wants Terry to find Jake's girlfriend Jessie Wyler (Rachel Ward), daughter of the Outlaws' owner. Jake claims that Jessie assaulted him, stole money and fled. Terry is reluctant to take on the job, but needs the money and knows Wise is capable of blackmailing him. Terry gets in touch with Jessie's mother (Jane Greer), ostensibly to find out where Jessie can be found, but mainly to convince Mrs. Wyler and her business partner Ben Caxton (Richard Widmark) to reinstate him on the team. Mrs. Wyler makes clear that she has no interest in his football career. She's willing to pay him more than Jake would if he will find Jessie for her. Beyond that, she has no use for him. Hank Sully (Alex Karras), the team's trainer, strongly advises Terry to stay away from Jake and offers to help Terry get a coaching job. Terry is convinced his days as a player are not over and instead decides to work for Jake to tide him over until the next season, when he can try to continue his playing career. Terry finds Jessie living in Cozumel, Mexico. He makes multiple attempts to approach Jessie, but she rebuffs him, aware that he must have been sent by either Jake or her mother. Terry tires of pursuing a spoiled brat and packs to leave, but Jessie appreciates that he hasn't revealed her whereabouts and invites him to see where she is staying. They become lovers. Terry confides the leverage Jake has over him is the knowledge that Terry once shaved points in an important football game after he had fallen into debt. Terry and Jessie remain happily together for a few weeks, with Terry continuing to tell Jake he's been unsuccessful in locating her. Sully is sent by Jake to investigate. He catches the lovers alone at the ruins of Chichen Itza. Wielding a gun, Sully demands that Terry turn over the girl and warns him she's "no good." He, too, has been involved in corruption with Jake's sports syndicate. A struggle between the men ensues and Jessie fatally shoots Sully. She wants to flee, as the two will be unable to offer an explanation that will allow them to avoid jail. But when Terry refuses, insisting that the two cannot just run away from the matter, Jessie abandons him. After disposing of Sully's body, Terry returns to Los Angeles and finds to his astonishment that Jessie has returned to Jake. He is bitter toward her, but Jake maintains a hold over him with the point-shaving incident, as well as Sully's sudden disappearance. Terry is sent to break into the office of Kirsch (Saul Rubinek), the team's corrupt lawyer, who is also involved in Jake's gambling operation. Terry's mission is to retrieve Kirsch's files, which implicate everyone involved. Terry breaks into the office only to find Kirsch dead. A security guard has been hired to kill Kirsch and make it look like Terry committed the murder. Terry fights off the security guard, then hides Kirsch's body. He finds a local bar frequented by Kirsch's secretary, Edie (Swoosie Kurtz), where he tells her what has happened and that she too is in danger. Edie tells him about a secret box that contains the information to bring down the entire syndicate and local politicians. They return to the office to retrieve the box, where a fight occurs with another two guards, but again Terry escapes, this time with Edie and the files. Jessie remains at Jake's side but claims to be still in love with Terry. She knows that Jake is behind Kirsch's murder and informs Caxton, telling him that Jake has been handling bets on his old football team using information he's been given by Sully and Kirsch. What she doesn't know is that Caxton is actually Jake's boss at the syndicate. Caxton takes charge. He arranges to meet Terry at the site of a new construction project that he and Mrs. Wyler are backing. Terry is able to disarm Caxton's armed henchman Tommy (Dorian Harewood). He says his price for turning over the files is that Caxton must take down Jake. Caxton indicates he is receptive to that idea, whereupon Jake pulls his own gun and threatens to kill Jessie, forcing Terry to drop his weapon. While the men have their attention focused on each other, Jessie retrieves the dropped gun and shoots Jake. Having killed both Jake and Sully, she must agree to terms set by Caxton to avoid going to jail. Caxton's terms include Jessie returning to her estranged mother's side and ending her relationship with Terry. Months later, Terry stays in the background while attending a publicity function for Caxton's and Mrs. Wyler's construction project. He just wants a last look at Jessie before leaving Los Angeles to play for a team in Miami. Caxton reminds him that he is no longer a part of Jessie's life. Terry acknowledges that this is true for the moment, but predicts that some day Jessie will break free of the hold that Caxton and Mrs. Wyler have on her. In the meantime, all Terry and Jessie can do is stare at one another from a distance. 

=====

Tribal chief Akhoba leads a hunting party into the hills to search for prey. One member of the tribe traps a giant warthog in a pit, and then Akhoba's son Tumak kills it. The tribe brings it home for dinner. Tumak and Akhoba fight over who deserves more of the meat, and Tumak is banished to the harsh desert by his angry father. After surviving many dangers or amazing creatures such as a giant iguana, ape men, a plant-eating Brontosaurus, and a giant spider, he collapses on a remote beach along the Western Interior Seaway, where he is spotted by "Loana the Fair One" and her fellow fisher- women of the blond Shell Tribe. They are about to help him when an Archelon (which is three times the size of the actual prehistoric Archelon) makes its way to the beach. Men of the Shell tribe arrive and drive it into the sea. Tumak is taken to their village, where Loana tends to him. Scenes follow emphasising that the Shell tribe is more advanced and more civilized than the brunette Rock tribe. They have cave paintings, music, delicate jewelry made from shells, agriculture, and a rudimentary language–all things Tumak seems to have never before encountered. When the tribe women are fishing, a young adult Allosaurus attacks. The tribe flees to their cave, but in the panic, a small girl is left trapped up a tree. Tumak seizes a spear from Ahot, a man of the Shell tribe, and rushes forward to defend her. Emboldened by this example, Loana runs out to escort the child to safety, and Ahot and other men come to Tumak's aid, one of the men being killed before Tumak is finally able to kill the dinosaur. In the aftermath, a funeral is held for the dead men – a custom which Tumak disdains. Leaving the funeral early, he re-enters the cave, and attempts to steal the spear with which he had killed the Allosaurus. Ahot, who had taken back the spear, enters, feeling upset by the attempted theft, and a fight ensues. The resulting commotion attracts the rest of the tribe, who unite to cast Tumak out. Loana leaves with him, and Ahot, in a gesture of friendship, gives him the spear over which they had fought. Meanwhile, Akoba leads a hunting party into the hills to search for prey but loses his footing while trying to take down a ram. Tumak's brother Sakana tries to kill their father to take power. Akoba survives, but is a broken man. Sakana becomes the new leader. With Sakana at the helm, Tumak and Loana run into a battle between a Ceratosaurus (as with the Archelon, the Ceratosaurus is twice the size as the actual creature) and a herbivorous Triceratops; the Triceratops eventually wins, charging its opponent and leaving it stunned. The outcasts wander back into the Rock tribe's territory and Loana meets the tribe, but again, there are altercations. The most dramatic one is a fight between Tumak's current love interest Loana and his former lover "Nupondi the Wild One". Loana wins the fight but refuses to strike the killing blow, despite the encouragement of the other members of the tribe. Meanwhile, Sakana resents Tumak and Loana's attempts at incorporating Shell tribe ways into their culture. While the cave people are swimming – seemingly for the first time, and inspired by Loana's example – they are attacked by a female Pteranodon. In the confusion, Loana is snatched into the air by the creature to be fed to its offspring, but is instead dropped into the sea, due to the intervention of a giant thieving Rhamphorhynchus. Loana manages to stagger ashore while the two pterosaurs battle, and then falls down. Tumak arrives but is only greeted by the sounds of the victorious Rhamphorhynchus eating the Pteranodon's offspring. Tumak initially presumes Loana to be dead. Sakana then leads a group of like-minded fellow hunters in an armed revolt against Akoba. Tumak, Ahot and Loana (who had staggered back to her tribe after the Pteranodon dropped her into the sea), and other members of the Shell tribe arrive in time to join the fight against Sakana. In the midst of a savage hand-to-hand battle, a volcano suddenly erupts: the entire area is stricken by earthquakes and landslides that overwhelm both tribes. As the film ends, Tumak, Loana, and the surviving members of both tribes emerge from cover to find themselves in a ruined, near- lunar landscape. They all set off – now united – to find a new home. 

=====

Lance Barton (Chris Rock) is a struggling comedian who is quite funny and confident in his personality, but is unable to bring his talent across in front of an audience. After being booed off stage one night he hears about an opportunity from his manager, Whitney Daniels (Frankie Faison), at the Apollo Theater, which is having a goodbye show due to its imminent closing. He is hoping to get a chance to prove himself in front of a real audience, when on his way home riding a bike Lance is distracted by Sontee Jenkins (Regina King). Not paying attention, he is hit by a semi truck and is instantly killed. Because of this, Lance is brought up to Heaven where he meets the angels, King (Chazz Palminteri) and Keyes (Eugene Levy), who reveal that Lance has been taken before his time and that, even though his body had been destroyed by the semi truck, they can help Lance return to Earth. Lance and King then start searching for a body. After sorting through many, they find Charles Wellington III, (Brian Rhodes) an extremely rich businessman freshly drowned in his tub by his wife (Jennifer Coolidge) and assistant, Winston Sklar (Greg Germann). Lance wants nothing to do with the body until he discovers that Sontee, the woman he saw when he was Lance, is protesting Charles by handcuffing herself to a coffee table in his penthouse, demanding Charles' presence. Lance sees this as a chance to get to know her, but he is reluctant to permanently be Charles. Accordingly, he makes a deal with King to loan Charles' body until a more suitable body is found. Soon after, Charles returns from death, but with the witty soul of Lance inside him. Only he and the angels can see him as Lance. Everybody else sees him as the middle-aged, rich, white Charles. Although Charles was unpopular in the past, the public and those closest to Charles start to notice a change in his personality. He transforms from a snobbish billionaire to a philanthropist. Despite recent events, Lance continues to follow his comedy dreams through Charles, contacting his old manager Whitney and convincing him that he is Lance reincarnated. Through many humorous moments and issues, he gets Sontee to fall in love with him. All too soon, Charles' wife and Sklar's plans to murder him succeed as he is shot and killed by a hired assassin. Fulfilling the deal Lance and King set up earlier, King and Keyes then send Lance to return yet again to Earth as Joe Guy, a great comedian and more acceptable candidate who will die in a car accident. Joe returns from this accident unscathed, now with Lance's soul. After pulling off a successful performance at the Apollo and reconnecting with Whitney, King and Keyes re-emerge. They inform him that after their current conversation, he will not remember them, Lance, Charles or Sontee. As said, after the angels leave, he no longer remembers the previous events or his previous lives. Even though he has lost his memory of Lance, he still has Lance's characteristics. As a result, he reconnects with Whitney again and proceeds to get Sontee to fall in love with him again, after meeting her in the theater for the first time as Joe Guy. 

=====

Twelve-year-old Lyra Belacqua runs wild with her dæmon Pantalaimon around Jordan College, Oxford, under the guardianship of the college's Master. One day, she witnesses the Master poison wine intended for Lord Asriel, Lyra's rebellious and adventuring uncle. She warns Asriel not to drink the wine, then spies on his lecture about "Dust", mysterious elementary particles attracted to adults more than to children. Asriel shows the college scholars images of a parallel universe seen through the Northern Lights amidst a concentration of Dust. The scholars agree to fund his controversial research, which is considered heretical by the oppressive Church. Lyra's best friend Roger goes missing, presumed kidnapped by child abductors known as the "Gobblers". Mrs Coulter takes Lyra to her home in London, but before Lyra leaves Jordan, the Master entrusts her with an alethiometer, a strange truth-telling device, which she quickly learns to use intuitively. After several weeks, Lyra discovers that Coulter is the head of the Gobblers, or "General Oblation Board", a secret Church-funded project. Horrified, Lyra flees to the Gyptians, canal-faring nomads, many of whose children have also been abducted. They reveal to Lyra that Asriel and Coulter are her parents. The Gyptians form an expedition to the Arctic with Lyra, where they believe the Gobblers are holding their children. They stop in Trollesund, where Lyra meets Iorek Byrnison, the dispossessed royal heir of the panserbjørne (armoured bears). Lyra uses her alethiometer to locate Iorek's missing armour; in return, he and his human aeronaut friend, Lee Scoresby, join her group. She also learns that Lord Asriel has been exiled, guarded by the panserbjørne on Svalbard. Trollesund's witch consul tells the Gyptians of a prophecy about Lyra which she must not know, and that the witch clans are choosing sides for an upcoming war. The search party continues towards Bolvangar, the Gobbler research station. Guided by the alethiometer, Lyra detours at a village and discovers an abandoned child who has been cut from his dæmon and who soon dies. She realises the Gobblers are experimenting on children by severing the bond between human and dæmon, a soul-splitting process called intercision. Lyra and her companions are attacked by bounty hunters, and Lyra is captured and taken to Bolvangar, where she is briefly reunited with Roger before being sent to be separated from Pantalaimon. Just before this can occur, Coulter arrives and halts the intercision process. She tells Lyra that intercision prevents the onset of troubling adult emotions, though it has not yet been perfected. Lyra activates Bolvangar's emergency alarm, sets the station on fire, and evacuates the children, where they are rescued by Scoresby, Iorek, the Gyptians, and the witch clan of Serafina Pekkala, who battle the station attendants as Lyra, Roger, and Iorek flee in Scoresby's hot air balloon. Lyra directs the witches to tow the balloon towards Asriel in Svalbard, but she falls out and is taken by the panserbjørne to the castle of their usurping king, Iofur Raknison. She tricks Iofur into fighting Iorek, who arrives with Roger to rescue Lyra. Iorek kills Iofur and regains his place as the rightful king. Lyra, Iorek, and Roger continue onwards to Svalbard, where Asriel has continued his Dust research in exile. He tells Lyra all he knows of Dust: that it has spawned parallel universes, it is somehow connected to death and misery, and that the Church believes it is the physical basis of sin. Lord Asriel travels with Roger through the snow, Lyra and Iorek follow using the tracks of Asriel's sled. Asriel ascends a mountain with Roger as Lyra and Iorek and his squadron of bears battle the witches that are allied with Asriel. Mrs Coulter and the Tartars arrive in a military airship and attack the bears. During the battle, Mrs Coulter follows Lyra to the top of the mountain, where Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter embrace at the peak of the mountain where Asriel has set up his equipment. Suddenly, Lord Asriel severs Roger from his dæmon, killing Roger but releasing an enormous amount of energy that tears a hole in the Northern Lights into a parallel universe, through which he walks. Devastated, Lyra and Pantalaimon also pass through the opening in the sky. 

=====

Buford Pusser, at his wife Pauline's behest, retires from the professional wrestling ring and moves back to Tennessee to start a logging business with his father, Carl Pusser. With a friend, he visits a gambling and prostitution establishment, the Lucky Spot, and is beaten up after catching the house cheating at craps. Pusser is seriously injured with a knife and receives over 200 stitches. He complains to the sheriff but is ignored, and soon becomes aware of the rampant corruption in McNairy County. Later, working at his father's lumber mill, Pusser makes a club out of a tree branch. Late one night, Pusser waits until after the Lucky Spot is closed and beats up the same thugs that left him for dead. The next day, Pusser is arrested and represents himself at trial. At one point, he rips off his shirt and shows the jury his scars. He informs them that "If you let them do this to me and get away with it, then you're giving them the eternal right to do the same damn thing to any one of you!" The jury finds Pusser not guilty, and he decides to clean up the county and runs for sheriff. The campaign is contentious against the incumbent sheriff who is killed trying to run Pusser off the road. Pusser is elected, and becomes famous for being incorruptible, intolerant of crime, and for his array of four-foot hickory clubs which he uses to great effect in dispatching criminals and destroying their clandestine gambling dens and illegal distilleries. Some residents praise Pusser as an honest cop in a crooked town; others denounce him as a bully willing to break some laws to uphold others. Pusser is betrayed by one of his deputies and is attacked several times. Finally, he and Pauline are ambushed in their car. Pauline is killed and Pusser is seriously injured. He is admitted to the hospital after being shot and while still in a neck and face cast, attends his wife's funeral. Afterward he rams a sheriff cruiser through the front doors of the Lucky Spot, killing two of his would-be assassins. As he leaves with two deputies, the townspeople arrive and begin throwing the gambling tables out into the parking lot. They light a bonfire as an overwhelmed Pusser wipes tears from his eyes. 

=====

The story takes place in what was, at the time of release, the near future of 1998–2002. Robots called "Labors" are employed in heavy construction work. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police has its own fleet of Patrol Labors (as opposed to patrol cars) or Patlabors to combat crimes/terrorism and deal with accidents involving Labors. The story arcs usually revolve around Tokyo Metropolitan Police Special Vehicle Section 2, Division 2. Noa Izumi is the main protagonist of the series, but all of Division 2 play roles. Hata and Kusumi are main protagonists of the third Patlabor film. The Next Generation takes place in 2013, with an entirely new cast with the exception of Shige and Buchiyama in maintenance, but the new members of SV2 have similar names and personalities to the old ones. The feature films follow a separate continuity, referred to as the "movie timeline", as opposed to the "TV timeline", with the Early Days OVA following the "movie timeline", and the New Files OVA following the "TV timeline". In addition, the manga follows its own continuity. The Next Generation features episodes that directly reference the TV series, while its final episode and movie are a direct sequel to the second movie. 

=====

Independent People is the story of the sheep farmer Guðbjartur Jónsson, generally known in the novel as Bjartur of Summerhouses, and his struggle for independence. The "first chapter summons up the days when the world was first settled, in 874 AD—for that is the year when the Norsemen arrived in Iceland, and one of the book's wry conceits is that no other world but Iceland exists. ... The book is set in the early decades of the twentieth century but ... Independent People is a pointedly timeless tale. It reminds us that life on an Icelandic croft had scarcely altered over a millennium"."A Small Country's Great Book" by Brad Leithauser, The New York Review of Books, 1995 As the story begins, Bjartur ("bright" or "fair") has recently managed to put down the first payment on his own farm, after eighteen years working as a shepherd at Útirauðsmýri, the home of the well-to-do local bailiff, a man he detests. The land that he buys is said to be cursed by Saint Columba, referred to as "the fiend Kolumkilli",Halldór Laxness, Independent People, trans. by J.A. Thompson (London: Harvill Press, 1999), p. 13. and haunted by an evil woman named Gunnvör, who made a pact with Kólumkilli. Defiantly, Bjartur refuses to add a stone to Gunnvör's cairn to appease her, and in his optimism also changes the name of the farm from Winterhouses to Summerhouses. He is also newly wed to a young woman called Rósa, a fellow worker at Rauðsmýri, and is determined that they should live as independent people. However, Rósa is miserable in her new home, which does not compare well to the luxury she was used to at Rauðsmýri. Bjartur also discovers that she is pregnant by Ingólfur Arnarson Jónsson, the son of the bailiff. In the autumn, Bjartur and the other men of the district ride up into the mountains on the annual sheep round-up, leaving Rósa behind with a gimmer to keep her company. Terrified by a storm one night, desperate for meat and convinced that the gimmer is possessed by the devil, Rósa kills and eats the animal. When Bjartur returns, he assumes that Rósa has set the animal loose. When he cannot find her when it comes time to put the sheep inside for the winter, he once more leaves his wife, by now heavily pregnant, to search the mountains for the gimmer. He is delayed by a blizzard, and nearly dies of exposure. On his return to Summerhouses he finds that Rósa has died in childbirth. His dog Titla is curled around the baby girl, still clinging to life due to the warmth of the dog. With help from Rauðsmýri, the child survives; Bjartur decides to raise her as his daughter, and names her Ásta Sóllilja ("beloved sun lily"). The narrative begins again almost thirteen years later. Bjartur is now remarried to a woman who had been a charity case on the parish, Finna. The other new inhabitants are Hallbera, Finna's mother, and the three surviving sons of Bjartur's second marriage: Helgi, Gvendur (Guðmundur) and Nonni (Jón). The rest of the novel charts the drudgery and the battle for survival of life in Summerhouses, the misery, dreams and rebellions of the inhabitants and what appears to be the curse of Summerhouses taking effect. In the middle of the novel, however, World War I commences and the prices for Icelandic mutton and wool soar, so that even the poorest farmers begin to dream of relief from their poverty. Particularly central is the relationship between Bjartur and Ásta Sóllilja. 

=====

Wai-Tung Gao and Simon are a happy gay couple living in Manhattan. Wai-Tung is in his late 20s, so his traditionally-minded parents are eager to see him get married and have a child in order to continue the family line. When Wai-Tung's parents hire a dating service, he and Simon stall for time by inventing impossible demands. They demand an opera singer and add that she must be 5'9", have two PhDs, and speak five languages. The service actually locates a 5'8" Chinese woman who sings Western opera, speaks five languages and has a single PhD. She is very gracious when Wai-Tung explains his dilemma, as she, too, is hiding a relationship (with a white man). At Simon's insistence, Wai-Tung decides to marry one of his tenants, Wei-Wei, a penniless artist from mainland China in need of a green card. Besides helping Wei-Wei, Simon and Wai-Tung hope that this will placate Wai-Tung's parents. Before Wai- Tung's parents arrive, Simon tells Wei-Wei everything she needs to know about Wai-Tung's habits, body, and lifestyle, and the three take down all homosexual content from their house and replace it with traditional Chinese scrolls. Mr. and Mrs. Gao announce they will visit from Taiwan, bringing gifts and US$30,000 to hold an extravagant wedding for their son; believing he is involved with a high-class rich woman. Wai-Tung dares not tell his parents the truth, because his father, a retired officer in the Chinese Nationalist Army, has just recovered from a stroke. As a part of the lie, Wai-Tung introduces Simon as his landlord. A day after Wai-Tung's parents arrive, he announces that Wei-Wei and he are planning to get their marriage certificate at city hall. However, the heartbreak his mother experiences at the courthouse wedding (both at the arrangement and at the discovery of her son's relation with an underclass woman) prepares the story for a shift to drama. The only way to atone for the disgraceful wedding is a magnificent wedding banquet, offered by Mr. Gao's former driver in the army who now owns a restaurant and reception hall. After the banquet, several relatives come up to their hotel room for an unsolicited after-party and they demand that the newlyweds get in bed naked before they all leave. This leads to a drunk Wai-Tung having sex with an equally drunken Wei-Wei who becomes pregnant. Simon is extremely upset when he finds out, and his relationship with Wai-Tung begins to deteriorate. Shortly after, Mr. Gao has another stroke, and in a moment of anger, after a fight with both Simon and Wei-Wei, Wai-Tung admits the truth to his mother. She is shocked and insists that he not tell his father. However, the perceptive Mr. Gao has seen more than he is letting on; he secretly tells Simon that he knows about their relationships and, appreciating the considerable sacrifices he made for his biological son, takes Simon as his son as well. Simon accepts the Hongbao from Wai-Tung's father, a symbolic admission of their relationship. Mr. Gao seeks and receives Simon's promise not to tell his secret for (as he points out) without the sham marriage, he'd never have a grandchild. While en route to an appointment for an abortion, Wei-Wei decides to keep the baby, and asks Simon to stay together with Wai-Tung and be the baby's second father. In the final parting scene, as Wai-Tung's parents prepare to fly home, Mrs. Gao has forged an emotional bond to daughter-in-law Wei-Wei. Mr. Gao accepts Simon and warmly shakes his hand. In the end, both derive some happiness from the situation, and they walk off to board the aircraft, leaving the unconventional family to figure themselves out. 

=====

Naïve country bumpkin Chou Tien Tsai (Tony Yang) goes to Taipei to meet an internet friend face-to-face. Being a romantic, and believing in 'true love' (he even has a book called Love Is A Kind Of Faith), he is sorely disappointed when his internet friend, Kevin, suggests they have sex with no love. Tien instead goes to a bar and runs into his ex-classmate Yu (Jin Qin) and Yu's friend CC (Dada Ji). In the same bar, he encounters the 'Number One Playboy' Bai Tieh Nan (Duncan Chow), who is notorious for one night stands. Despite professing his dislike for 'men who play with love', Tien can't help being drawn to Bai. Tien becomes roommates with Yu. Yu enlists another friend, Alan (James Yun), to try and set Tien up with someone so he'll lose his virginity, but their efforts fail against Tien's unyielding belief in saving himself for true love. Tien later gets a job as a clubhouse attendant, where he has several run-ins with Bai, who seems to like Tien mutually. Despite warnings from his friends and rumors about Bai's past, Tien very quickly develops a liking towards Bai. Scenes with Bai and his psychologist show that Bai has a problem kissing people despite having no qualms about sleeping with them. After being advised to practice kissing a mirror and then a mannequin, both of which fail to help him, he tries to kiss his longtime friend, Jun (Jason Chang), but can't bring himself to do it. One night, Tien shows up at Bai's doorstep and they end up kissing and having sex consensually. True to his nature, Bai disappears the next day, leaving Jun to turn up at his house and explain to Tien that 'he hopes you don't misunderstand', causing Tien to misunderstand the situation. Tien, hurt and unknowing of the entire story behind Bai's intimacy issues, leaves a message saying that 'this kind of misunderstanding won't happen again'. Later, Bai, who would like to make amends with Tien, is thwarted from doing so before having to leave for an important business trip. After failing to reach Bai by phone, Tien prepares to leave his roommate's dwelling and return to his own home. Meanwhile, Tien's friends corner Bai and Jun as they get back from the business trip. They ask Bai to tell them the truth, but Bai is very resistant to tell the story, so Jun decides to share instead. As a young boy, Bai was told by a fortune teller that he is cursed and that anything that he loves will be doomed. A lifetime of self-fulfilling this prophecy is what led Bai to become a serial one-night stander and lose his ability to love. Falling in love with Tien caught Bai off guard and, as a result, they both suffered. After a silent prayer for a second chance, he sees T'ien heading up an escalator. His first attempt to apologize fails, and Tien literally runs away. He nearly gets run down by a scooter, but Bai saves him and they make up. The ending credits include a short segment on Yu, CC, and Alan and their somewhat stereotyped views upon gay fashion. 

=====

The book is set in a fantastical version of imperial China (Hughart subtitled it "A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was"). It draws on and reinvents the traditional tale of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl and other myths, poems and incidents from Chinese history. The real story of the Cowherd and Weaver Girl is referenced at the end of the book. In the beginning of the novel, the village of Ku-fu is stricken by a plague which kills its silkworms and sends its children between the ages of eight and thirteen into a coma. Number Ten Ox, the narrator, is dispatched to find a wise man who can cure the children. In Peking, he finds Master Li Kao, a drunken scholar with a self-described "slight flaw in his character", who immediately identifies the cause of the plague as ku poison, an incurable poison inflicted on the village by two dishonest villagers trying to corner the silk crop. In order to cure the children, Ox and Master Li set out to find the Great Root of Power, which can cure anything. They begin by seeking it in the palace of the feared Ancestress. As it turns out, however, the Ancestress possesses only the lesser Root of Power, and the true Great Root is in the possession of the tyrannical and avaricious Duke of Ch'in. After surviving the Duke of Ch'in's deadly games that consisted of labyrinths and terrible monsters, they succeed in gathering different parts of the Ginseng. Still, these are all ineffective in curing the children. Along with the Ginseng, they also find three handmaiden ghosts that repeated the same story, "The birds of China must fly!" One of the many people they meet in their adventure is Henpecked Ho, who tells them the story of how a god, Star Shepherd, fell in love with a human girl, who was given the title of Princess of Birds. They also meet Key Rabbit, who is married to Lotus Cloud. Like every other man with a pure heart, Ox worships Lotus Cloud and showers her with expensive gifts. The heroes visit the Old Man of the Mountain. There they learn that in order to become immortal one must obtain something from the gods, and to become invulnerable one's heart must be removed. This information helps them figure out that somehow their quest to find the Ginseng is intertwined with the story of the Princess of Birds. They also conclude that the Duke of Ch'in knows the secrets of immortality and invulnerability, and was the same Duke who tricked the Princess of Birds and her three handmaidens centuries ago. Master Li and Number Ten Ox are able to find the Duke's heart. The Duke is killed, and Master Li bows to Lotus Cloud and calls her the Princess of Birds. Master Li and Number Ten Ox listen to a sound that turns out to be the sound of a trillion birds making a bridge to heaven. The Princess places the Great Root of Power in Ox's hand. Back at the village of Ku-Fu, the children are cured. Great glorious explosions of stars streak across the sky as Star Shepherd opens his arms to receive Lotus Cloud, the Princess of Birds. 

=====

The chapters found in the game are not discovered in chronological order. Instead, to make the narrative more dramatic, each chapter jumps around the timeline of the plot. However, despite the overall story skipping back and forth through time, the chapters do follow chronological order within their respective locations. This is because each setting also has its own contained story. In 2000 AD, Alexandra Roivas finds herself returning to her family's estate in Rhode Island after her grandfather, Edward Roivas, her only living relative, is found brutally murdered. Two weeks after returning, with the local police having gotten nowhere with the investigation, Alex decides to investigate the mansion for clues, and stumbles upon a secret room containing a book bound with human skin called the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Deciding to read it, she finds it contains accounts of various people in the past, beginning with the story of Pious Augustus. Pious Augustus, a respected Roman military commander, is sent to Ancient Persia to locate an important relic. Lured away from his men by mysterious voices, Pious found himself venturing into an underground temple complex called the Forbidden City. He comes across three artifacts. Each possessing the essence of a powerful godlike being referred to as "Ancients". Upon attempting to touch one of the artifacts, Pious finds himself corrupted by its power, whereupon he pledges his allegiance to the artifact's Ancient and begins working on summoning them into the universe. The remaining two artifacts that Pious did not claim were put out of Pious' reach. One of the other artifacts represents the Ancient that is stronger than Pious', and the other represents the Ancient weaker than Pious'. The artifact representing the weaker Ancient remained in the Forbidden City. A young Persian swordsman named Karim, ventures to the Forbidden City to locate a treasure for a woman that he loves. Upon finding it, he sacrifices himself in order to guard it. Pious returns to Persia in the Middle Ages to construct a Pillar of Flesh at the Forbidden City, as part of his master's plans. Roberto Bianchi, a Venetian architect traveling through the region, is captured by Pious' men. While under involuntary servitude, he encounters the spirit of Karim, who entrusts him with the artifact in his possession. Soon after, Roberto is buried alive, along with many others, under tons of concrete. Centuries later, a Canadian firefighter named Michael Edwards works with his team to extinguish several major oil fires in the Middle East, following the end of the Gulf War. After an explosion killed his entire team and trapped him in the Forbidden city, he is approached by Roberto's spirit, who gives him the artifact and instructs him to take it to the Roivas Family Estate. Michael then moves to destroy the Forbidden City with a magickally enhanced bomb. A few months later, Michael delivers the artifact to Edward Roivas in secret, telling him that he "won't last a night." Meanwhile, the artifact representing the stronger Ancient is moved, by Pious, to Oublié Cathedral, in Amiens France, in order to prevent it from being used against him. First, though, Pious orders the assassination of Charlemagne the Frank, so his movement cannot impede his plans. A Frankish messenger named Anthony, who stumbles upon the plot, travels to the then small monastery in order to warn him of the danger to his life. Despite Anthony's best efforts, he arrives too late to save him and dies from the spell he was afflicted with. When the location is a newly constructed Cathedral, Pious Augustus summons a creature called the Black Guardian, to protect the artifact that could defeat his master. A Franciscan monk named Paul Luther, visiting the region to view a holy relic at the cathedral, finds himself accused of murdering a fellow monk by the local Inquisition. Attempting to clear his name, he encounters the Black Guardian, which promptly kills him. During World War I, Oublié Cathedral is converted into a field hospital. Peter Jacob, a field reporter making accounts about the war, notes that patients have been disappearing of late. Venturing into the catacombs, he finds himself encountering the Black Guardian and defeats it, recovering the artifact it was guarding. Sixty-nine years later, Edward is visited by a now elderly Peter Jacob who gives an account of his experience in Amiens before handing over the artifact in his possession. While the other two artifacts are fought over between Pious and several unwitting souls, the "Corpse God" Mantorok, another powerful god-like being that can oppose Pious' master, has an artifact of its own. In the Middle Ages, Pious travels to a temple in Angkor Thom, Cambodia in order to deal with Mantorok. A young Khmer slave girl, named Ellia, finds herself trapped within the temple at the same time. While trying to find her way out, she is approached by one of Mantorok's servants, who entrusts her with the task of protecting the Ancient's essence within her body. Pious kills her shortly after. Centuries later, Dr. Edwin Lindsey, a noted archaeologist, ventures to Cambodia on an expedition to visit a hidden temple complex. After nearly being killed by Pious, who disguised himself in order to accompany him, Edwin finds Ellia's body and is entrusted by her spirit with Mantorok's essence, which he eventually delivers to Edward a few weeks later. Alongside the struggle to claim the powerful artifacts of the Ancients, the Roivas Family Estate in Rhode Island, USA holds secrets of its own. Dr. Maximillian Roivas, a colonial ancestor of Alex and her grandfather, inherits his father's mansion in Rhode Island and decides to investigate its secrets. He soon finds a large cavern beneath the mansion, containing an ancient city within called Ehn'gha. He returns to the surface to get help, only to be considered delirious, and is sent to an asylum for the rest of his life. In the middle of the 20th century, Dr. Edward Roivas, a clinical psychologist at the time, inherits the Estate. Finding his way underground, Edward discovers the city incorporates magick machinery and uses it to greatly damage the city with a powerful destructive spell. Knowing this is not enough, he decides to research what he can within the Tome for the final battle. After a decades-long time skip, Edward is assassinated by one of Pious' servants. Alexandra Roivas, having learned all she can from the Tome, decides to finish the fight. Recovering the artifacts from within the mansion, she soon ventures into Ehn'gha and uses them with the city's machinery, in order to summon a rival Ancient to fight Pious' master. Alex then engages Pious in combat, aided by the spirits of those written in the Tome, eventually defeating him and destroying the essence of his master, who is defeated by its rival. Edward's spirit then acts quickly to use Ehn'gha's mechanism to send back the summoned Ancient before it can cause any harm to the world. After completing all three story paths, Edward Roivas narrates a revelation. All three paths are revealed to have occurred simultaneously in separate timelines. One of Mantorok's spheres of influence happens to be chaos, and with it, the ability to subtly manipulate time and space. It turned the other three Ancients against one another in mutual annihilation and merged the timestreams into one complete victory. Now only Mantorok remains, slowly dying. 

=====

Ann (Sarah Polley) is a hard-working 23-year-old mother with two small daughters, an unemployed husband (Scott Speedman), a mother (Deborah Harry) who sees her life as a failure, and a jailed father whom she has not seen for ten years. Her life changes dramatically when, during a medical checkup following a collapse, she is diagnosed with metastatic ovarian cancer and told that she has only two months to live. Deciding not to tell anyone of her condition and using the cover of anemia, Ann makes a list of things to do before she dies. She decides to change her hair, record birthday messages for the girls for every year until they're 18, and tries to set up her husband with another woman. Feeling a longing to experience a life that was never available to her, she seeks out a man to experience how it feels to be in a sexual relationship with someone other than her husband. Her experiment ends up taking an emotional toll when she meets with a man named Lee, who ends up madly in love with her and is left heartbroken when Ann breaks it off with him. He meets with her one last time and says that he will do anything to make her happy, taking care of her daughters and even finding her husband a new job. She ends their relationship and never tells him that she is dying. At the end of the film, Ann records a message to her husband, telling him that she loves him, and another one to Lee, telling him the same. She then leaves all tapes that she has recorded with her doctor, asking him to deliver them after her death. 

=====

Inspector Singh (Suresh Oberoi) gets a tip about Munna (Anil Kapoor), entering his jurisdiction, so he checks Munna's file. Inspector Singh recognises Munna as cadet Mahesh Deshmukh, a brilliant cadet whom he met a few years ago at a bank robbery crime scene in Nasik, whereby Mahesh's parents and many other bank employees were mercilessly killed by a gang of robbers. Inspector Singh tracks Munna, re-kindles his relationship and asks him where he disappeared after the bank incident. To which Munna/Mahesh replies: He had shifted to Bombay with his sister Jyoti, where he met an impoverished and unfortunate but kind-hearted and gentle woman, Mohini, who was forced to dance to make money for her father Shyamlal (Anupam Kher). He is a drunkard who does not want to marry off Mohini because she made money for him by dancing in nearby nightclubs. He behaved similarly with his wife (Suhas Joshi) and when she had refused to do as he wished, he threw acid on her. Mohini's Mother committed suicide thereafter. In his youth, Shyamlal had taken a huge loan from Lotiya Pathan (a dreaded gangster) and the only way to repay it was to make Mohini dance. Shyamlal also has to deal with Chote Khan, younger brother of Lotiya, who was involved in the Bank robbery and had killed Mahesh/Munna's parents, and also Chote Khan was arrested due to Mahesh/Munna. After release/bailout, immediately Chote Khan had attempted to rape Jyoti but Mahesh killed Chote Khan in self-defense. For this, Mahesh/Munna was arrested and sentenced to one year in jail, after which he changed his name to Munna. On learning the whole story from Mahesh/Munna, Inspector Singh allows him to complete his task and stipulates some conditions including the time and date of return/surrender. When Lotiya hears that Mahesh/Munna is back in town, he kidnaps Mohini. Shyamlal now approaches/begs Munna to get Mohini rescued ASAP and requires that she be returned to him only. Mahesh rescues Mohini, and they rejoice to see each other again after a long time, but Mahesh asks Mohini to return to her father; Mohini becomes sad again as she had expected to follow with her lover. As he had promised Inspector Singh, Munna surrenders whereupon he is tried and tested in Court and then sent to prison for some time. After a retrial, Munna is acquitted of his charges and plans to start afresh in another city - Goa. However, his sister Jyoti convinces Mahesh/ Munna not to forget his lover Mohini - so Mahesh/Munna sends his friends- Guldasta and Baban - to explain to Mohini where her lover is now. The evil father Shyamlal overhears Mohini's plans to escape and is enraged, he tries to stop Mohini from leaving. Guldasta and Shyamlal have a fight in which both die, but Mohini manages to escape safely and Mohini meets Munna again. However, Lotiya learning of Munna's acquittal conspires to kill him as revenge for his brother's death - so they all meet up at a dockyard. Baban (Chunky Pandey) gets a tip of Lotiya's conspiracy and challenges Lotiya. Lotiya gets enraged and a fight between him and Baban ends in Lotiya getting defeated. Baban wants to kill Lotiya in the fit of rage, but Munna intercepts him and stops him from committing murder. Meanwhile, Lotiya regains his strength and goes to attack Munna with a club. Baban dies deflecting the attack. Munna fights back at Lotiya and is about to kill him but Inspector Singh interrupts just in time to stop him from taking the law in his hands. Inspector Singh recognizes he's breaking the law but allows Munna to fight Lotiya as he sees this as a way of Munna letting go of his anger and hatred he holds within himself. As Munna defeats Lotiya, Lotiya quickly gets up and tries to attack and kill Munna but Inspector Singh kills him with his service pistol and justice is served finally. 

=====

The Geneforge storylines takes place in an era resembling the medieval time period, but with the addition of some modern innovations, such as wiring, levers and buttons, alarms, glass, and other steampunk-esque tools. The games involve a group of mages called "Shapers", who dominate the game world due to their ability to create life as they see fit. The player character is cast as an apprentice Shaper in the first three games, as a neophyte rebel in the fourth, and as an unaligned amnesiac in the fifth. Crises in the game result from the Shapers' mistreatment of their creations while trying to ensure that their art does not wreak havoc on the world, versus the freedom of intelligent creations at the cost of said havoc. The player is left to determine what is the right thing to do, such as using mysterious skill canisters which may breed arrogance in the user in return for increased power. The games are highly non-linear, with multiple goals allowing the player to join any sect, and receive one of a number of different endings (the canonical ending for each game being revealed in the following one). There is a high degree of player influence on the game world, and the existence of multiple solutions to problems. For example, one sect may give you the quest to destroy an object, while an opposing sect will charge you with its protection. 

=====

A Shaper explores one of the game's dungeons with his creations The player begins as an initiate of a powerful sect of magicians, the Shapers. Members of the sect create living beings from the magical essence within themselves. Apprentices are sent to academies to learn the art of shaping and the player's character has been accepted to do so. The player departs on a voyage to the academy aboard a specially modified Drayk, a dragon-like Shaper Creation. During the journey, the Shaper passes a group of islands, one of which is recognized as the Barred Sucia Island. Locations Barred by the Shapers are closed to both the sect and outsiders alike, meaning a catastrophe has occurred or something very valuable is located there. As the Shaper examines Sucia, lost in thought, the craft is attacked and mortally wounded by an unidentified sailing ship. After igniting the vessel's sails with a fireball, the craft deposits the Shaper on an abandoned dockside before dying. The player is now stranded on Sucia Island and must find a way to leave. Exploration of the docks reveals a strange canister filled with swirling liquid. Thinking the canister contains healing or energizing properties, the Shaper breaks the seal and absorbs the contents. Instead the contents absorb into the Shaper's body, strengthening and changing it.In-game text The stuff didn't heal or revive you like you expected. It changed you. It's like it soaked into your skin and rewrote some of your very being, making you stronger. (Geneforge) Spiderweb Software, 2002 The changes become visibly apparent, the player character's skin smoothens and glows slightly.In-game text Yes, you're sure of it. Your skin is glowing slightly. You inspect yourself more carefully. Your muscles are moving under your skin, very slightly, of their own accord, as if they are very carefully rearranging themselves. Your skin is different. It's smoother and stronger. And it's warmer to the touch. (Geneforge) Spiderweb Software, 2002 The canisters also affect the user's mental state, causing a more violent and arrogant temperament.In-game text And your thoughts are different too. They're stronger, more confident. And, when you look at the crude creations around you, you are quicker to see how small and flawed and disgusting they are. (Geneforge) Spiderweb Software, 2002 Serviles remain on the island, having been abandoned when the island was Barred. They are intelligent creations of Shapers, designed to serve them without question or hesitation.In-game text:: Serviles are one of the greatest Shaper creations. They are the most common and valued servants of your people, intelligent, hardy, obedient, and featuring hands with opposable thumbs. They are also easily controlled. (Geneforge) Spiderweb Software, 2002 These Serviles have had no contact with Shapers for two centuries,Learned Pinner: Your kind left two centuries behind. They left behind us serviles. They did not tell us why they left. (Geneforge) Spiderweb Software, 2002 and have separated into three groups with differing philosophies regarding their creators. The Obeyers are still faithful to the Shapers,Guard servile: In the name of the Obeyers, we welcome you. We are grateful that you have returned to rule and guide us at last. (Geneforge) Spiderweb Software, 2002 the Awakened believe that they should be treated as equals.Ellhrah: We believe that the Shapers created us. However, we also believe that, while we should be grateful, we should no longer be your slaves. We wish to deal with you as intelligent beings, and as equals. (Geneforge) Spiderweb Software, 2002 The Takers have rejected Shapers completely and view the sect as oppressors to be fought.Gnorrel: We call ourselves Takers, now, because we will take our freedom from you, however we can. You lost all right to control us when you left us here. (Geneforge) Spiderweb Software, 2002 After encountering the three servile groups, the player begins to learn of a group of foreigners known as Sholai, explorers who have been shipwrecked on the island. It was the Sholai, led by a man named Trajkov, who attacked the player with their last remaining ship. Trajkov controls a device called the Geneforge, created by the Shapers, which can rewrite the user's DNA and make them incredibly powerful.Masha: He find out you have something called the Geneforge, some amazing powerful thing. He and allies want to use it. But they can't. It not ready. It need full Shaper for some reason. So he get a Shaper. (Geneforge) Spiderweb Software, 2002 This is the cause of the island's Barred status, the device was deemed too dangerous in the wrong hands.Clois: The secrets of all life are written, on the tiniest of scrolls, and copied a multitude of times within you. The Shapers here used magic to look deep within a living being and see these scrolls, and they learned how to rewrite them. And they learned that this power brought great danger to them. Thus, they fled. (Geneforge) Spiderweb Software, 2002 Trajkov and his followers have allied themselves with the Takers,Houton: The Takers here, they deal with the outsider humans. They are called the Sholai. (Geneforge) Spiderweb Software, 2002 absorbing the contents of canisters and trying to claim Shaper powers as their own. The group have been unable to activate the Geneforge itself due to a Shaper being needed to activate the device. A Shaper named Goettsch was kidnapped for this purpose, in the same manner as the player-character. Goettsch fled and stole the shaping gloves needed to safely use the Geneforge,Astrov: Trajkov kidnaps a Shaper! He takes one of your kind called Goettsch. But then Goettsch flees, and takes something with him. Trajkov furious! (Geneforge) Spiderweb Software, 2002 causing Trajkov to attempt to kidnap the player as a replacement.Masha: Trajkov still want power, so he give command to get you. (Geneforge) Spiderweb Software, 2002 During these events, some Sholai have escaped from their increasingly violent and unpredictable leader.Sholai journal entry: As I write this, we are rowing away from Trajkov and his loyal, mad minions. At last, I can write freely. Trajkov is mad. Why is he doing what he is doing? Where did his lust for power come from? I do not know. I know this, though. We must stop him. (Geneforge) Spiderweb Software, 2002 The player is free to join any one of the servile groups and share common goals, or remain unaligned. Geneforge can be completed without joining any group. Trajkov can be killed through combat or tricked into killing himself by using the Geneforge. He can also be aided in activating the device, if the player steals the shaper gloves from Goettsch. Goettsch offers the player fake shaper gauntlets, which do not protect Trajkov from the Geneforge's energy should he be convinced they are genuine shaping gloves. The player can complete the game by using the last boat on Sucia Island. The small vessel is moored in a guarded dock on the far side of the island. Finishing the game unlocks one of more than a dozen game endings, dependent on the player's actions during the game. 

=====

In the frontier of New Mexico Territory, Joe Baker is an aging bandit determined to do "something big" before his fiancée Dover McBride arrives from the Eastern United States. Dover's brother Tommy is a partner in Baker's banditry. Baker must deal with outlaw Jonny Cobb and his ruthless sidekick Angel Moon, while also opposing his plan is the cantankerous Colonel Morgan, who is about to retire from the U.S. Army command in the territory while his wife Mary Anna is arriving from the East to accompany him home. Colonel Morgan learns from his Indian scout Bookbinder that Baker is planning something but cannot learn details. Actually it is to attack and rob a bandit hoard just across the border in Mexico. The treasure being well guarded, Baker makes a deal with Cobb to purchase a Gatling gun in exchange for a woman. Then Baker receives a letter from his fiancée informing him of her imminent arrival, which sets a deadline on the achievement of his "something big." Baker's gang holds up a series of stagecoaches, but in each he is unable to find a woman suitable for Cobb and lets the passengers go unmolested. He is finally able to find a worthy candidate, who turns out to be Colonel Morgan's wife. She quickly learns to like Baker because he treats her with respect. But the abduction of his wife enrages Morgan, who sets off with a patrol to rescue her and capture Baker. Cobb and sidekick Moon meet the trader Malachi Morton in the desert to buy the gun, which has been stolen from a federal arsenal. When the trader demands more than what they agreed, Moon hurls his knife into Morton's chest, instantly killing him. Before they can meet Baker for the handover, however, they are accosted by Morgan and his scout Bookbinder, who agree to let the bandits go if they reveal Baker's location. Baker's fiancé Dover arrives at the fort and installs herself in Morgan's quarters. Hearing of her arrival, Baker agrees to meet her in the desert. She gives him an ultimatum to go home with her immediately after achieving his plan or she will marry someone else. The night before the supposed rendezvous with Cobb to purchase the gun, Baker realizes he is in love with Mary Anna. He attempts to kiss her, but she rebuffs him, stating she is in love with her husband. Nevertheless, Baker tells Tommy that he intends to take the gun from Cobb without giving Mary Anna to him. Morgan and his scout, with Cobb, Moon and the gun in tow, arrive at Baker's hideout and Angel Moon is killed when he attempts to kill Baker. Morgan proceeds to attack Baker with his fists but stops when his wife says how well Baker has treated her. And when he refuses to give Baker the gun, his wife reminds him that he is now officially retired and no longer has the authority to seize the gun as federal property. Cobb realizes he is not going to get his woman and breaks down, but Morgan realizes that there is a solution, namely a pair of lonely women that he and Bookbinder had encountered earlier. When Cobb arrives, the women roughly throw him off his horse and gleefully drag him to their shack. Baker and his men assault the bandit's town in Mexico, with the help of the Apache allies they have previously paid with whiskey. They are informed that the notorious bandit Emilio Estevez is now a monk. Baker suspects a ruse and pulls open the monk's robe, revealing a pistol. A gun battle erupts which the outnumbered Baker is losing until he mounts the wagon with the Gatling gun and mows down the opposition. Baker finds the bandit's treasure in the town church, but as his men celebrate their riches, he is haunted by Dover’s parting words. Back at the fort, Morgan receives an emotional farewell from his assembled troops. Baker, Dover, Morgan and Mary Anna board the stagecoach to return to the East. As they ride out, Baker climbs out on top and drinks to the health of his men riding alongside. 

=====

The story begins with the recollection of young Jean Rézeau catching a viper in his grandparents' courtyard and holding it in his fist. He chokes it to death. Young Jean lives with his grandparents. When his grandmother dies, his parents come back from China (French Indochina in the 2004 film adaptation) where his father (Jacques) teaches law. He and his brothers then discover that their mother Paule is a horrible woman, who hates her life and her children. She is extremely severe with them; deliberately unfair to the point of cruelty. Their father is a weak man who, except on rare occasions, submits to his wife's will. He spends his time in entomology studies. Gradually, the situation turns to a perverse domestic war. Paule seizes any pretext for being cruel to her sons, and especially to Jean. Jean and his brother attempt to kill their mother twice: once with an overdose of medicine (which only gave her diarrhea); once by attempting to drown her in the river, making it seem an accident. She escapes. On one occasion, she asks her sons' personal educator to flog Jean as a punishment. Jean escapes and goes to see his grandfather, a senator living in an upscale area of Paris. He is brought back by his father, who is fairly embarrassed by the situation. Jean is now 15. He discovers sex with Madeleine, a young farmer's daughter from the area. He does not love her, for he distrusts all women, in whom he sees his own mother. He claims women are little but an receptacle for semen. Paule tries to have her son caught red-handed for theft by intentionally leaving her wallet in Jean's bedroom. Jean foils her plot and after a short confrontation, he obtains what he wants, and what Paule wants too: the departure of Jean and his brother to a boarding school. Jean concludes his memoirs by saying that while it seems that he has won, in reality Paule has destroyed his whole being. Throughout his life, he'll not be able to feel trust or love. 

=====

